# What makes this one better?  nothing really.  i tried out
# App::Config, but (according to my understanding) one needs
# to state all variables in the configuration before reading
# in the configuration file.  That's useful in some situations,
# i just didn't like it.  i tried Config::IniFile which worked
# alright, but being lazy i don't like a function call in
# between me and my values (i could also tie a hash to it,
# which is useful, but i had a couple minutes so i thought i'd
# do a quick reinvention of the wheel)
#
# What makes mine different is that it's a quick and dirty parser
# that floods the packages namespace (not main's) with the
# variables.  It doesn't handle arrays or hashes (to be handled
# at a later date) just simple name=val (with any number of
# spaces).
#
# The way to call it (in case you're interested) is just:
#
# use ConfFile("conf/file/name_here");
#
# this seems elegant and useful because i can put in one line
# at the top of my code and use all of my configuration
# variables.  It just makes sense to me for some reason.
# Anyway, enough banter, here it is...

#!/usr/local/bin/perl -w

package ConfFile;
use strict;
use Carp;

sub import {
   shift;               # this gets rid of the calling package...
   my ($call) = caller;

   # i also changed this: why die cuz there was no file?
   my $filename = $_[0] || return;
   my $symbols  = &readFile;

   carp "No values were read in from $filename.\n" unless (keys %$symbols);

   # one has to turn off strict 'refs' in order to flood the namespace of
   # the calling package in this way.
   no strict qw(refs);
   foreach (keys %$symbols) {
      *{"${call}::${_}"} = \$symbols->{$_};
   }
   use strict qw(refs);

   return;
}

sub readFile {
   my $file = shift;
   my (%sym, $key, $val);
   local $_;

   open FILE, $file or croak "Couldn't open file $file: $!";

   while (<FILE>) {
      next if /^\s*#|;/;
      next if /^$/;
      chomp;

      ($key, $val) = /^\s*?(\S+)\s*?=?\s*?(\S+)$/;
      $sym{$key} = $val;
   }
   close FILE;

   return (keys %sym) ? \%sym : undef;
}


1;

# please, please comment on anything done badly, i do hope
# to use this someday soon...
#
# jynx
#
# Update: i used Fastolfe's suggestions so this looks
# a little better...