new ( [-option=>value ...] )¶

Returns a new configuration object (or "undef" if the configuration file has an error, in which case check the global @Config::IniFiles::errors array for reasons why). One Config::IniFiles object is required per configuration file. The following named parameters are available:

-file filename

Specifies a file to load the parameters from. This 'file' may actually be any of the following things:

  1) the pathname of a file
    $cfg = Config::IniFiles->new( -file => "/path/to/config_file.ini" );
  2) a simple filehandle
    $cfg = Config::IniFiles->new( -file => STDIN );
  3) a filehandle glob
    open( CONFIG, "/path/to/config_file.ini" );
    $cfg = Config::IniFiles->new( -file => *CONFIG );
  4) a reference to a glob
    open( CONFIG, "/path/to/config_file.ini" );
    $cfg = Config::IniFiles->new( -file => \*CONFIG );
  5) an IO::File object
    $io = IO::File->new( "/path/to/config_file.ini" );
    $cfg = Config::IniFiles->new( -file => $io );
  or
    open my $fh, '<', "/path/to/config_file.ini" or die $!;
    $cfg = Config::IniFiles->new( -file => $fh );
  6) A reference to a scalar (requires newer versions of IO::Scalar)
    $ini_file_contents = <<EOT
    [section name]
    Parameter=A value
    Setting=Another value
    EOT
    $cfg = Config::IniFiles->new( -file => \$ini_file_contents );
    

If this option is not specified, (i.e. you are creating a config file from scratch) you must specify a target file using SetFileName in order to save the parameters.

-default section

Specifies a section to be used for default values. For example, in the following configuration file, if you look up the "permissions" parameter in the "joe" section, there is none.

   [all]
   permissions=Nothing
   [jane]
   name=Jane
   permissions=Open files
   [joe]
   name=Joseph
    

If you create your Config::IniFiles object with a default section of "all" like this:

   $cfg = Config::IniFiles->new( -file => "file.ini", -default => "all" );
    

Then requesting a value for a "permissions" in the [joe] section will check for a value from [all] before returning undef.

   $permissions = $cfg->val( "joe", "permissions");   // returns "Nothing"
    

-fallback section

Specifies a section to be used for parameters outside a section. Default is none. Without -fallback specified (which is the default), reading a configuration file which has a parameter outside a section will fail. With this set to, say, "GENERAL", this configuration:

   wrong=wronger
   [joe]
   name=Joseph
    

will be assumed as:

   [GENERAL]
   wrong=wronger
   [joe]
   name=Joseph
    

Note that Config::IniFiles will also omit the fallback section header when outputting such configuration.

-nocase 0|1

Set -nocase => 1 to handle the config file in a case-insensitive manner (case in values is preserved, however). By default, config files are case-sensitive (i.e., a section named 'Test' is not the same as a section named 'test'). Note that there is an added overhead for turning off case sensitivity.

-import object

This allows you to import or inherit existing setting from another Config::IniFiles object. When importing settings from another object, sections with the same name will be merged and parameters that are defined in both the imported object and the -file will take the value of given in the -file.

If a -default section is also given on this call, and it does not coincide with the default of the imported object, the new default section will be used instead. If no -default section is given, then the default of the imported object will be used.

-allowcontinue 0|1

Set -allowcontinue => 1 to enable continuation lines in the config file. i.e. if a line ends with a backslash "\", then the following line is appended to the parameter value, dropping the backslash and the newline character(s).

Default behavior is to keep a trailing backslash "\" as a parameter value. Note that continuation cannot be mixed with the "here" value syntax.

-allowempty 0|1

If set to 1, then empty files are allowed at ReadConfig time. If set to 0 (the default), an empty configuration file is considered an error.

-negativedeltas 0|1

If set to 1 (the default if importing this object from another one), parses and honors lines of the following form in the configuration file:

  ; [somesection] is deleted
    

or

  [inthissection]
  ; thisparameter is deleted
    

If set to 0 (the default if not importing), these comments are treated like ordinary ones.

The WriteConfig1)> form will output such comments to indicate deleted sections or parameters. This way, reloading a delta file using the same imported object produces the same results in memory again. See " DELTA FEATURES" in IMPORT for more details.

-commentchar 'char'

The default comment character is "#". You may change this by specifying this option to another character. This can be any character except alphanumeric characters, square brackets or the "equal" sign.

-allowedcommentchars 'chars'

Allowed default comment characters are "#" and ";". By specifying this option you may change the range of characters that are used to denote a comment line to include any set of characters

Note: that the character specified by -commentchar (see above) is always part of the allowed comment characters.

Note 2: The given string is evaluated as a regular expression character class, so '\' must be escaped if you wish to use it.

-reloadwarn 0|1

Set -reloadwarn => 1 to enable a warning message (output to STDERR) whenever the config file is reloaded. The reload message is of the form:

  PID <PID> reloading config file <file> at YYYY.MM.DD HH:MM:SS
    

Default behavior is to not warn (i.e. -reloadwarn => 0).

This is generally only useful when using Config::IniFiles in a server or daemon application. The application is still responsible for determining when the object is to be reloaded.

-nomultiline 0|1

Set -nomultiline => 1 to output multi-valued parameter as:

 param=value1
 param=value2
    

instead of the default:

 param=<<EOT
 value1
 value2
 EOT
    

As the latter might not be compatible with all applications.

-handle_trailing_comment 0|1

Set -handle_trailing_comment => 1 to enable support of parameter trailing comments.

For example, if we have a parameter line like this:

 param1=value1;comment1
    

by default, handle_trailing_comment will be set to 0, and we will get value1;comment1 as the value of param1. If we have -handle_trailing_comment set to 1, then we will get value1 as the value for param1, and comment1 as the trailing comment of param1.

Set and get methods for trailing comments are provided as "SetParameterTrailingComment" and "GetParameterTrailingComment".

-php_compat 0|1

Set -php_compat => 1 to enable support for PHP like configfiles.

The differences between parse_ini_file and Config::IniFiles are:

 # parse_ini_file
 [group]
 val1="value"
 val2[]=1
 val2[]=2
 vs
 # Config::IniFiles
 [group]
 val1=value
 val2=1
 val2=2
    

This option only affect parsing, not writing new configfiles.

Some features from parse_ini_file are not compatible:

 [group]
 val1="val"'ue'
 val1[key]=1
    

val ($section, $parameter [, $default] )¶

Returns the value of the specified parameter ($parameter) in section $section, returns undef (or $default if specified) if no section or no parameter for the given section exists.

If you want a multi-line/value field returned as an array, just specify an array as the receiver:

  @values = $cfg->val('Section', 'Parameter');

A multi-line/value field that is returned in a scalar context will be joined using $/ (input record separator, default is \n) if defined, otherwise the values will be joined using \n.

exists($section, $parameter)¶

True if and only if there exists a section $section, with a parameter $parameter inside, not counting default values.

push ($section, $parameter, $value, [ $value2, ...])¶

Pushes new values at the end of existing value(s) of parameter $parameter in section $section. See below for methods to write the new configuration back out to a file.

You may not set a parameter that didn't exist in the original configuration file. push will return undef if this is attempted. See newval below to do this. Otherwise, it returns 1.

setval ($section, $parameter, $value, [ $value2, ... ])¶

Sets the value of parameter $parameter in section $section to $value (or to a set of values). See below for methods to write the new configuration back out to a file.

You may not set a parameter that didn't exist in the original configuration file. setval will return undef if this is attempted. See newval below to do this. Otherwise, it returns 1.

newval($section, $parameter, $value [, $value2, ...])¶

Assigns a new value, $value (or set of values) to the parameter $parameter in section $section in the configuration file.

delval($section, $parameter)¶

Deletes the specified parameter from the configuration file

ReadConfig¶

Forces the configuration file to be re-read. Returns undef if the file can not be opened, no filename was defined (with the "-file" option) when the object was constructed, or an error occurred while reading.

If an error occurs while parsing the INI file the @Config::IniFiles::errors array will contain messages that might help you figure out where the problem is in the file.

Sections¶

Returns an array containing section names in the configuration file. If the nocase option was turned on when the config object was created, the section names will be returned in lowercase.

SectionExists ( $sect_name )¶

Returns 1 if the specified section exists in the INI file, 0 otherwise (undefined if section_name is not defined).

AddSection ( $sect_name )¶

Ensures that the named section exists in the INI file. If the section already exists, nothing is done. In this case, the "new" section will possibly contain data already.

If you really need to have a new section with no parameters in it, check that the name that you're adding isn't in the list of sections already.

DeleteSection ( $sect_name )¶

Completely removes the entire section from the configuration.

RenameSection ( $old_section_name, $new_section_name, $include_groupmembers)¶

Renames a section if it does not already exist, optionally including groupmembers

CopySection ( $old_section_name, $new_section_name, $include_groupmembers)¶

Copies one section to another optionally including groupmembers

Parameters ($sect_name)¶

Returns an array containing the parameters contained in the specified section.

Groups¶

Returns an array containing the names of available groups.

Groups are specified in the config file as new sections of the form

  [GroupName MemberName]

This is useful for building up lists. Note that parameters within a "member" section are referenced normally (i.e., the section name is still "Groupname Membername", including the space) - the concept of Groups is to aid people building more complex configuration files.

SetGroupMember ( $sect )¶

Makes sure that the specified section is a member of the appropriate group.

Only intended for use in newval.

RemoveGroupMember ( $sect )¶

Makes sure that the specified section is no longer a member of the appropriate group. Only intended for use in DeleteSection.

GroupMembers ($group)¶

Returns an array containing the members of specified $group. Each element of the array is a section name. For example, given the sections

  [Group Element 1]
  ...
  [Group Element 2]
  ...

GroupMembers would return ("Group Element 1", "Group Element 2").

SetWriteMode ($mode)¶

Sets the mode (permissions) to use when writing the INI file.

$mode must be a string representation of the octal mode.

GetWriteMode ($mode)¶

Gets the current mode (permissions) to use when writing the INI file.

$mode is a string representation of the octal mode.

WriteConfig ($filename [, %options])¶

Writes out a new copy of the configuration file. A temporary file is written out and then renamed to the specified filename. Also see BUGS below.

If "-delta" is set to a true value in %options, and this object was imported from another (see "new"), only the differences between this object and the imported one will be recorded. Negative deltas will be encoded into comments, so that a subsequent invocation of new() with the same imported object produces the same results (see the -negativedeltas option in "new").

%options is not required.

Returns true on success, "undef" on failure.

RewriteConfig¶

Same as WriteConfig, but specifies that the original configuration file should be rewritten.

GetFileName¶

Returns the filename associated with this INI file.

If no filename has been specified, returns undef.

SetFileName ($filename)¶

If you created the Config::IniFiles object without initialising from a file, or if you just want to change the name of the file to use for ReadConfig/RewriteConfig from now on, use this method.

Returns $filename if that was a valid name, undef otherwise.

$ini->OutputConfigToFileHandle($fh, $delta)¶

Writes OutputConfig to the $fh filehandle. $delta should be set to 1 1 if writing only delta. This is a newer and safer version of OutputConfig() and one is encouraged to use it instead.

$ini->OutputConfig($delta)¶

Writes OutputConfig to STDOUT. Use select() to redirect STDOUT to the output target before calling this function. Optional argument should be set to 1 if writing only a delta. Also see OutputConfigToFileHandle

SetSectionComment($section, @comment)¶

Sets the comment for section $section to the lines contained in @comment.

Each comment line will be prepended with the comment character (default is "#") if it doesn't already have a comment character (ie: if the line does not start with whitespace followed by an allowed comment character, default is "#" and ";").

To clear a section comment, use DeleteSectionComment ($section)

GetSectionComment ($section)¶

Returns a list of lines, being the comment attached to section $section. In scalar context, returns a string containing the lines of the comment separated by newlines.

The lines are presented as-is, with whatever comment character was originally used on that line.

DeleteSectionComment ($section)¶

Removes the comment for the specified section.

SetParameterComment ($section, $parameter, @comment)¶

Sets the comment attached to a particular parameter.

Any line of @comment that does not have a comment character will be prepended with one. See "SetSectionComment($section, @comment)" above

GetParameterComment ($section, $parameter)¶

Gets the comment attached to a parameter. In list context returns all comments - in scalar context returns them joined by newlines.

DeleteParameterComment ($section, $parameter)¶

Deletes the comment attached to a parameter.

GetParameterEOT ($section, $parameter)¶

Accessor method for the EOT text (in fact, style) of the specified parameter. If any text is used as an EOT mark, this will be returned. If the parameter was not recorded using HERE style multiple lines, GetParameterEOT returns undef.

$cfg->SetParameterEOT ($section, $parameter, $EOT)¶

Accessor method for the EOT text for the specified parameter. Sets the HERE style marker text to the value $EOT. Once the EOT text is set, that parameter will be saved in HERE style.

To un-set the EOT text, use DeleteParameterEOT ($section, $parameter).

DeleteParameterEOT ($section, $parameter)¶

Removes the EOT marker for the given section and parameter. When writing a configuration file, if no EOT marker is defined then "EOT" is used.

SetParameterTrailingComment ($section, $parameter, $cmt)¶

Set the end trailing comment for the given section and parameter. If there is a old comment for the parameter, it will be overwritten by the new one.

If there is a new parameter trailing comment to be added, the value should be added first.

GetParameterTrailingComment ($section, $parameter)¶

An accessor method to read the trailing comment after the parameter. The trailing comment will be returned if there is one. A null string will be returned if the parameter exists but there is no comment for it. otherwise, undef will be returned.

Delete¶

Deletes the entire configuration file in memory.

tie %ini, 'Config::IniFiles', (-file=>$filename, [-option=>value ...] )¶

Using "tie", you can tie a hash to a Config::IniFiles object. This creates a new object which you can access through your hash, so you use this instead of the new method. This actually creates a hash of hashes to access the values in the INI file. The options you provide through "tie" are the same as given for the new method, above.

Here's an example:

  use Config::IniFiles;
  my %ini;
  tie %ini, 'Config::IniFiles', ( -file => "/path/configfile.ini" );
  print "We have $ini{Section}{Parameter}." if $ini{Section}{Parameter};

Accessing and using the hash works just like accessing a regular hash and many of the object methods are made available through the hash interface.

For those methods that do not coincide with the hash paradigm, you can use the Perl "tied" function to get at the underlying object tied to the hash and call methods on that object. For example, to write the hash out to a new ini file, you would do something like this:

  tied( %ini )->WriteConfig( "/newpath/newconfig.ini" ) ||
    die "Could not write settings to new file.";

$val = $ini{$section}{$parameter}¶

Returns the value of $parameter in $section.

Multiline values accessed through a hash will be returned as a list in list context and a concatenated value in scalar context.

$ini{$section}{$parameter} = $value;¶

Sets the value of $parameter in $section to $value.

To set a multiline or multi-value parameter just assign an array reference to the hash entry, like this:

 $ini{$section}{$parameter} = [$value1, $value2, ...];

If the parameter did not exist in the original file, it will be created. However, Perl does not seem to extend autovivification to tied hashes. That means that if you try to say

  $ini{new_section}{new_paramters} = $val;

and the section 'new_section' does not exist, then Perl won't properly create it. In order to work around this you will need to create a hash reference in that section and then assign the parameter value. Something like this should do nicely:

  $ini{new_section} = {};
  $ini{new_section}{new_paramters} = $val;

%hash = %{$ini{$section}}¶

Using the tie interface, you can copy whole sections of the ini file into another hash. Note that this makes a copy of the entire section. The new hash in no longer tied to the ini file, In particular, this means -default and -nocase settings will not apply to %hash.

$ini{$section} = {}; %{$ini{$section}} = %parameters;¶

Through the hash interface, you have the ability to replace the entire section with a new set of parameters. This call will fail, however, if the argument passed in NOT a hash reference. You must use both lines, as shown above so that Perl recognizes the section as a hash reference context before COPYing over the values from your %parameters hash.

delete $ini{$section}{$parameter}¶

When tied to a hash, you can use the Perl "delete" function to completely remove a parameter from a section.

delete $ini{$section}¶

The tied interface also allows you to delete an entire section from the ini file using the Perl "delete" function.

%ini = ();¶

If you really want to delete all the items in the ini file, this will do it. Of course, the changes won't be written to the actual file unless you call RewriteConfig on the object tied to the hash.

Parameter names¶

my @keys = keys %{$ini{$section}}

while (($k, $v) = each %{$ini{$section}}) {...}

if( exists %{$ini{$section}}, $parameter ) {...}

When tied to a hash, you use the Perl "keys" and "each" functions to iteratively list the parameters ("keys") or parameters and their values ("each") in a given section.

You can also use the Perl "exists" function to see if a parameter is defined in a given section.

Note that none of these will return parameter names that are part of the default section (if set), although accessing an unknown parameter in the specified section will return a value from the default section if there is one.

Section names¶

foreach( keys %ini ) {...}

while (($k, $v) = each %ini) {...}

if( exists %ini, $section ) {...}

When tied to a hash, you use the Perl "keys" and "each" functions to iteratively list the sections in the ini file.

You can also use the Perl "exists" function to see if a section is defined in the file.

@Config::IniFiles::errors¶

Contains a list of errors encountered while parsing the configuration file. If the new method returns undef, check the value of this to find out what's wrong. This value is reset each time a config file is read.

Perldoc¶

You can find documentation for this module with the perldoc command.

  perldoc Config::IniFiles

Websites¶

The following websites have more information about this module, and may be of help to you. As always, in addition to those websites please use your favorite search engine to discover more resources.

• MetaCPAN

  A modern, open-source CPAN search engine, useful to view POD in HTML format.

  <https://metacpan.org/release/Config-IniFiles>

• RT: CPAN's Bug Tracker

  The RT ( Request Tracker ) website is the default bug/issue tracking system for CPAN.

  <https://rt.cpan.org/Public/Dist/Display.html?Name=Config-IniFiles>

• CPANTS

  The CPANTS is a website that analyzes the Kwalitee ( code metrics ) of a distribution.

  <http://cpants.cpanauthors.org/dist/Config-IniFiles>

• CPAN Testers

  The CPAN Testers is a network of smoke testers who run automated tests on uploaded CPAN distributions.

  <http://www.cpantesters.org/distro/C/Config-IniFiles>

• CPAN Testers Matrix

  The CPAN Testers Matrix is a website that provides a visual overview of the test results for a distribution on various Perls/platforms.

  <http://matrix.cpantesters.org/?dist=Config-IniFiles>

• CPAN Testers Dependencies

  The CPAN Testers Dependencies is a website that shows a chart of the test results of all dependencies for a distribution.

  <http://deps.cpantesters.org/?module=Config::IniFiles>

Bugs / Feature Requests¶

Please report any bugs or feature requests by email to "bug-config-inifiles at rt.cpan.org", or through the web interface at <https://rt.cpan.org/Public/Bug/Report.html?Queue=Config-IniFiles>. You will be automatically notified of any progress on the request by the system.

Source Code¶

The code is open to the world, and available for you to hack on. Please feel free to browse it and play with it, or whatever. If you want to contribute patches, please send me a diff or prod me to pull from your repository :)

<https://github.com/shlomif/perl-Config-IniFiles>

  git clone git://github.com/shlomif/perl-Config-IniFiles.git