Why not just make your config a perl data structure?

Because parsing Perl in a safe way is hard. You don't want to execute the "rm -rf /" in $config={ foo => `rm -rf /` }.

See also:

• Re^4: how to read conf file in perl script
• Re: What's the right way to include a config file as a .pm bareword?
• Re^2: Storing state of execution
• Re^4: The safety of string eval and block eval.
• Re: Accessing variables in an external hash without eval
• Re^2: conf file in Perl syntax

Alexander

I agree. You'd basically have to rewrite the perl interpreter so that can run a copy of itself as child process in a sandbox and only return a safe, sanitized hashref. To quote RFC1925:

   (5)  It is always possible to aglutenate multiple separate problems
        into a single complex interdependent solution. In most cases
        this is a bad idea.
[download]

With enough software engineering, this is certainly possible, at least to a certain extend, but

   (3)  With sufficient thrust, pigs fly just fine. However, this is
        not necessarily a good idea. It is hard to be sure where they
        are going to land, and it could be dangerous sitting under the
+m
        as they fly overhead.
[download]

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