Config::Std blank entry in hash, and blank line

carcassonne has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Howdy,

Using the configuration file below I obtain a blank entry when listing all the keys in %config. Also, when adding a new section, a blank line separates the section name from the entry of that section, like this:

[FifthBlock]

build: Test_2.00.002
[download]

Here's the test code:

read_config 'test2.cfg' => my %config;
print Dumper(%config);
$config{"FifthBlock"}{"build"} = "Test_2.00.002";
write_config %config, "test2.modified";
exit 0;
[download]

And here's the configuration file (platform is Linux - i.e. only newlines):

[MainSection]
branch: FirstBlock
branch: SecondBlock
branch: ThirdBlock
branch: FourthBlock

[MainSectionBuilds]
build: TestBuild-001
build: TestBuild-002
build: TestBuild-003
build: TestBuild-004
build: TestBuild-005

[FirstBlock]
build: Test_1.04.001
build: Test_1.04.002
build: Test_1.04.003
build: Test_1.04.004
[download]

And here's the beginning of Dumper:

$VAR1 = '';
$VAR2 = {};
$VAR3 = 'FirstBlock';
$VAR4 = {
          'build' => [
[download]

$VAR1 and $VAR2 are holding nothing. Does this have an effect on the extra newline between added section name and section entry ?

Comment on Config::Std blank entry in hash, and blank line Select or Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Config::Std blank entry in hash, and blank line by TheDamian (Vicar) on Dec 14, 2005 at 19:12 UTC
Using the configuration file below I obtain a blank entry when listing all the keys in %config. That's because every config file starts with the "nameless" section. As soon as you name a section, it shifts to that section instead but, even if your first line is a section marker, there will still be an entry for the nameless section (which had no data) in the resulting hash. Arguably however, that's unintuitive, and the nameless section ought not appear in the resulting hash unless it has actual contents. I'll patch the next release to work that way. Also, when adding a new section, a blank line separates the section name from the entry of that section Yes, that's the standard behaviour. And, no, there's currently no way of altering it. I guess `read_config` could look at the input file's layout and intuit whether you're separating section markers from config variables. I'll look at adding that behaviour too. Damian	[reply]
Re^2: Config::Std blank entry in hash, and blank line by carcassonne (Pilgrim) on Dec 15, 2005 at 13:16 UTC
I guess read_config could look at the input file's layout and intuit whether you're separating section markers from config variables. Maybe just adding a configurable parameter like 'noExtraNewlines' that would put newlines only in-between sections when adding entries ? That is, the current scheme of the user's file use of newlines would be preserved. Only new entries would be adopting the configurable option. Concern is, many users coudl eventually modify the same INI file, each one adding newlines when he/she sees it fit. How about then an INI file formatter that would straigthen this out according to a defined (and configurable) scheme ? ;-)	[reply]
Re^3: Config::Std blank entry in hash, and blank line by TheDamian (Vicar) on Dec 15, 2005 at 22:45 UTC
I would prefer not to add any more configuration parameters. The idea here is simplicity and avoiding too many variations (hence `::Std` ;-) An INI formatter would be a great idea, but this module isn't (going to be) that.	[reply]