Config::Tiny - Read/Write .ini style files with as little code as possible
# In your configuration file rootproperty=blah [section] one=twp three= four Foo =Bar empty= # In your program use Config::Tiny; # Create an empty config my $Config = Config::Tiny->new; # Create a config with data my $config = Config::Tiny->new({ _ => { rootproperty => "Bar" }, section => { one => "value", Foo => 42 } }); # Open the config $Config = Config::Tiny->read( 'file.conf' ); $Config = Config::Tiny->read( 'file.conf', 'utf8' ); # Neither ':' nor '<:' prefix! $Config = Config::Tiny->read( 'file.conf', 'encoding(iso-8859-1)'); # Reading properties my $rootproperty = $Config->{_}->{rootproperty}; my $one = $Config->{section}->{one}; my $Foo = $Config->{section}->{Foo}; # Changing data $Config->{newsection} = { this => 'that' }; # Add a section $Config->{section}->{Foo} = 'Not Bar!'; # Change a value delete $Config->{_}; # Delete a value or section # Save a config $Config->write( 'file.conf' ); $Config->write( 'file.conf', 'utf8' ); # Neither ':' nor '>:' prefix! # Shortcuts my($rootproperty) = $$Config{_}{rootproperty}; my($config) = Config::Tiny -> read_string('alpha=bet'); my($value) = $$config{_}{alpha}; # $value is 'bet'. my($config) = Config::Tiny -> read_string("[init]\nalpha=bet"); my($value) = $$config{init}{alpha}; # $value is 'bet'.
Config::Tiny is a Perl class to read and write .ini style configuration files with as little code as possible, reducing load time and memory overhead.
Config::Tiny
Most of the time it is accepted that Perl applications use a lot of memory and modules.
The *::Tiny family of modules is specifically intended to provide an ultralight alternative to the standard modules.
*::Tiny
This module is primarily for reading human written files, and anything we write shouldn't need to have documentation/comments. If you need something with more power move up to Config::Simple, Config::General or one of the many other Config::* modules.
Config::*
Lastly, Config::Tiny does not preserve your comments, whitespace, or the order of your config file.
See Config::Tiny::Ordered (and possibly others) for the preservation of the order of the entries in the file.
Files are the same format as for MS Windows *.ini files. For example:
*.ini
[section] var1=value1 var2=value2
If a property is outside of a section at the beginning of a file, it will be assigned to the "root section", available at $Config->{_}.
"root section"
$Config->{_}
Lines starting with '#' or ';' are considered comments and ignored, as are blank lines.
'#'
';'
When writing back to the config file, all comments, custom whitespace, and the ordering of your config file elements are discarded. If you need to keep the human elements of a config when writing back, upgrade to something better, this module is not for you.
Returns a string representing the most recent error, or the empty string.
You can also retrieve the error message from the $Config::Tiny::errstr variable.
$Config::Tiny::errstr
Here, the [] indicate an optional parameter.
The constructor new creates and returns a Config::Tiny object.
new
This will normally be a new, empty configuration, but you may also pass a hashref here which will be turned into an object of this class. This hashref should have a structure suitable for a configuration file, that is, a hash of hashes where the key _ is treated specially as the root section.
_
The read constructor reads a config file, $filename, and returns a new Config::Tiny object containing the properties in the file.
read
$encoding may be used to indicate the encoding of the file, e.g. 'utf8' or 'encoding(iso-8859-1)'.
Do not add a prefix to $encoding, such as '<' or '<:'.
Returns the object on success, or undef on error.
undef
When read fails, Config::Tiny sets an error message internally you can recover via Config::Tiny->errstr. Although in some cases a failed read will also set the operating system error variable $!, not all errors do and you should not rely on using the $! variable.
Config::Tiny->errstr
$!
See t/04.utf8.t and t/04.utf8.txt.
The read_string method takes as argument the contents of a config file as a string and returns the Config::Tiny object for it.
read_string
The write method generates the file content for the properties, and writes it to disk to the filename specified.
write
Do not add a prefix to $encoding, such as '>' or '>:'.
Returns true on success or undef on error.
Generates the file content for the object and returns it as a string.
The last value is retained, overwriting any previous values.
See t/06.repeat.key.t.
So a line like:
key=value # A comment
Sets key to 'value # A comment', which, presumably, you did not intend.
This conforms to the syntax discussed in "CONFIGURATION FILE SYNTAX".
This means you can't preserve the suffix using:
key = Prefix ; Suffix
Result: key is now 'Prefix'.
But you can do this:
key = Prefix;Suffix
Result: key is now 'Prefix;Suffix'.
Or this:
key = Prefix; Suffix
Result: key is now 'Prefix; Suffix'.
See t/07.trailing.comment.t.
E.g.:
[Things] my = list = of = things =
Instead of:
[Things] my list of things
Because the use of '=' signs is a type of mandatory documentation. It indicates that that section contains 4 items, and not 1 odd item split over 4 lines.
This question comes from RT#85386.
Yes, the syntax may seem odd, but you don't have to call both new() and read_string().
Try:
perl -MData::Dumper -MConfig::Tiny -E 'my $c=Config::Tiny->read_string("one=s"); say Dumper $c'
Or:
my($config) = Config::Tiny -> read_string('alpha=bet'); my($value) = $$config{_}{alpha}; # $value is 'bet'.
Or even, a bit ridiculously:
my($value) = ${Config::Tiny -> read_string('alpha=bet')}{_}{alpha}; # $value is 'bet'.
Yes. See t/05.zero.t (test code) and t/0 (test data).
Some edge cases in section headers are not supported, and additionally may not be detected when writing the config file.
Specifically, section headers with leading whitespace, trailing whitespace, or newlines anywhere in the section header, will not be written correctly to the file and may cause file corruption.
https://github.com/ronsavage/Config-Tiny.git
Bugs should be reported via the CPAN bug tracker at
https://github.com/ronsavage/Config-Tiny/issues
For other issues, or commercial enhancement or support, contact the author.
Adam Kennedy <adamk@cpan.org>
Maintanence from V 2.15: Ron Savage http://savage.net.au/.
Thanks to Sherzod Ruzmetov <sherzodr@cpan.org> for Config::Simple, which inspired this module by being not quite "simple" enough for me :).
See, amongst many: Config::Simple and Config::General.
IOD. Ini On Drugs.
IOD::Examples
App::IODUtils
Config::IOD::Reader
Config::Perl::V. Config data from Perl itself.
Config::Onion
Config::IniFiles
Config::INIPlus
Config::Hash. Allows nested data.
Config::MVP. Author: RJBS. Uses Moose. Extremely complex.
Config::TOML. See next few lines:
https://github.com/dlc/toml
https://github.com/alexkalderimis/config-toml.pl. 1 Star rating.
https://github.com/toml-lang/toml
Copyright 2002 - 2011 Adam Kennedy.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.
The full text of the license can be found in the LICENSE file included with this module.
To install Config::Tiny, copy and paste the appropriate command in to your terminal.
cpanm
cpanm Config::Tiny
CPAN shell
perl -MCPAN -e shell install Config::Tiny
For more information on module installation, please visit the detailed CPAN module installation guide.