G'day Amblikai,

"Is that something thats natively possible?"

Yes. The code below requires a minimum Perl version of 5.10.0 (for the mro pragma).

Update (correction): It actually needs a minimum version of 5.10.1 for the parent pragma; mro still needs a minimum of 5.10.0. I changed use 5.010; to use use 5.010_001; in the code. 

#!/usr/bin/env perl

use 5.010_001;
use strict;
use warnings;

package My::Base;

use mro;

our %conf;

sub new {
    my ($class) = @_;

    bless {} => $class;
}

sub configure {
    my ($class, $opts) = @_;

    {
        no strict 'refs';
        %{$class . '::conf'} = (%{$class . '::conf'}, %$opts);
    }

    $_->configure($opts) for @{mro::get_isarev($class)};

    return;
}

package My::Trunk;

use parent -norequire, 'My::Base';

our %conf;

package My::Branch_A;

use parent -norequire, 'My::Trunk';

our %conf;

package My::Branch_B;

use parent -norequire, 'My::Trunk';

our %conf;

package main;

# Everything after here is for demo purposes only.

use Data::Dump;

say '*** Normal instantiation';
say 'My::Base object: ', My::Base::->new();
say 'My::Trunk object: ', My::Trunk::->new();
say 'My::Branch_A object: ', My::Branch_A::->new();
say 'My::Branch_B object: ', My::Branch_B::->new();

say "\n*** My::Base::->configure({A => 1});";
My::Base::->configure({A => 1});
_show_configs();

say "\n*** My::Trunk::->configure({B => 2, C => 3});";
My::Trunk::->configure({B => 2, C => 3});
_show_configs();

say "\n*** My::Branch_A::->configure({A => 'me', D => 4});";
My::Branch_A::->configure({A => 'me', D => 4});
_show_configs();

say "\n*** My::Branch_B::->configure({B => 'me', E => 5});";
My::Branch_B::->configure({B => 'me', E => 5});
_show_configs();

sub _show_configs {
    say 'My::Base::conf';
    dd \%My::Base::conf;
    say 'My::Trunk::conf';
    dd \%My::Trunk::conf;
    say 'My::Branch_A::conf';
    dd \%My::Branch_A::conf;
    say 'My::Branch_B::conf';
    dd \%My::Branch_B::conf;
}

[download]

Note that all lowercase package names are generally reserved for pragmata (e.g. strict, warnings, etc.). I've replaced my::base with My::Base (and similarly for your other classes).

Output:

*** Normal instantiation
My::Base object: My::Base=HASH(0x800003c98)
My::Trunk object: My::Trunk=HASH(0x800003cc8)
My::Branch_A object: My::Branch_A=HASH(0x800003c98)
My::Branch_B object: My::Branch_B=HASH(0x800003cc8)

*** My::Base::->configure({A => 1});
My::Base::conf
{ A => 1 }
My::Trunk::conf
{ A => 1 }
My::Branch_A::conf
{ A => 1 }
My::Branch_B::conf
{ A => 1 }

*** My::Trunk::->configure({B => 2, C => 3});
My::Base::conf
{ A => 1 }
My::Trunk::conf
{ A => 1, B => 2, C => 3 }
My::Branch_A::conf
{ A => 1, B => 2, C => 3 }
My::Branch_B::conf
{ A => 1, B => 2, C => 3 }

*** My::Branch_A::->configure({A => 'me', D => 4});
My::Base::conf
{ A => 1 }
My::Trunk::conf
{ A => 1, B => 2, C => 3 }
My::Branch_A::conf
{ A => "me", B => 2, C => 3, D => 4 }
My::Branch_B::conf
{ A => 1, B => 2, C => 3 }

*** My::Branch_B::->configure({B => 'me', E => 5});
My::Base::conf
{ A => 1 }
My::Trunk::conf
{ A => 1, B => 2, C => 3 }
My::Branch_A::conf
{ A => "me", B => 2, C => 3, D => 4 }
My::Branch_B::conf
{ A => 1, B => "me", C => 3, E => 5 }

[download]
"I can't use Moose or any of the more advanced frameworks, i'm stuck with pretty basic perl unfortunately"

In that case, you may not have Data::Dump. To run the demo, change that to Data::Dumper and the dd ...; lines to print Dumper ...;.

See also: "perlootut - Object-Oriented Programming in Perl Tutorial" and "perlobj - Perl object reference".

— Ken

In reply to Re: Reconfiguration of classes in an "inheritable" manner by kcott
in thread Reconfiguration of classes in an "inheritable" manner by Amblikai

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