Config file recommendations?

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

Greetings, fellow monks.

I am currently working on a project that, like every other project, needs a config file.

I've read about a few options for handling the need for config files - from building a parse for name=value pairs to just having a config.pm that has all my configuration stuff inside it, to using Config::foo, and so on.

Long story short, I'm no longer certain which format to use(or how to accomplish it).

I need the config file to be able to contain Perl code, which means I can't use the first method I mentioned.

However, I'd also like it to insinuate its data into a global %config hash - so that I can refer to it from anywhere within my collection of scripts by simple doing this:

use config;
print $config{foo};
[download]

Does anyone have any recommendations on how to implement this in Perl, or a module I could use that would help me accomplish this?

Thanks,

Spidy

website army

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Re: Config file recommendations? by samtregar (Abbot) on Mar 19, 2008 at 03:40 UTC
There's a ton of Config:: modules to choose from on CPAN. You should pick one that suites your tastes, it's a simple enough job that it's hard to pick badly. To me the key questions are 1) who is going to edit your config file and 2) how complicated is that configuration data. When my answer to #1 was admins who knew Apache and the answer to #2 was Apache-style config blocks I created Config::ApacheFormat. If you're feeling particularly ambivalent you might use Data::PhraseBook which will let you pick one format today and switch tomorrow without changing the code that uses the configs. Another option for the undecided is Config::Auto. It may well be too clever for its own good but at least it tries hard! Once you've picked a parser writing some glue code to populate a global %CONFIG (don't use %Config since that's what the core Config module uses and you'll probably need it someday) should be easy. If it's not, pick another module! -sam	[reply]
Re: Config file recommendations? by kyle (Abbot) on Mar 19, 2008 at 03:57 UTC
You might be interested in a poll, My preferred way of handling config data in Perl is: If you really have to have Perl code in your config file, then the simplest solution is a file you can do or require. In fact, that option got the most votes in the poll I just referenced.	[reply]
Re^2: Config file recommendations? by Spidy (Chaplain) on Mar 19, 2008 at 14:52 UTC
That does seem to be what I'm looking for - if I had a config file like this: `%config = ( foo => bar, bat => baz, );` [download] How would I use that inside my Perl script, and have it globally available? Would `require config;` automatically setup the %config hash for the script that `require`d it? website army	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^3: Config file recommendations? by kyle (Abbot) on Mar 19, 2008 at 15:21 UTC
I think maybe you're looking for Exporter. With it, you can have a module that will place a variable into the namespace of a program that uses it.	[reply]
Re^4: Config file recommendations? by Spidy (Chaplain) on Mar 19, 2008 at 18:19 UTC
Re^5: Config file recommendations? by kyle (Abbot) on Mar 19, 2008 at 21:18 UTC
Some notes below your chosen depth have not been shown here
Re: Config file recommendations? by dwhite20899 (Friar) on Mar 19, 2008 at 16:53 UTC
For something that just plain works, we use Config::Tiny. Drop dead simple use, and the config file format is dead simple too. The config file format supports a cascading flow, so we put config keys and values that apply to every implementaion in the "master" section, and Win, OSX, Linux etc. specific keys in those separate sections, and use the file everywhere.	[reply]
Re: Config file recommendations? by hangon (Deacon) on Mar 19, 2008 at 14:50 UTC
You might want to look at YAML::Tiny. This module uses a subset of YAML that is easily understood by a reasonably intelligent non-geek and can handle name/values, lists, text blocks and can be commented. You can retreive the data as a hash as you require, and although I havn't tried it, you should be able to include blocks of Perl code that you can eval.	[reply]