NAME
Prima::IniFile - support of Windows-like initialization files
DESCRIPTION
The module contains a class, that provides mapping of text
initialization file to a two-level hash structure. The first level is
called sections, which groups the second level hashes, called items.
Sections must have unique keys. The items hashes values are arrays of
text strings. The methods, operated on these arrays are get_values,
set_values, add_values and replace_values.
SYNOPSIS
use Prima::IniFile;
my $ini = create Prima::IniFile;
my $ini = create Prima::IniFile FILENAME;
my $ini = create Prima::IniFile FILENAME,
default => HASHREF_OR_ARRAYREF;
my $ini = create Prima::IniFile file => FILENAME,
default => HASHREF_OR_ARRAYREF;
my @sections = $ini->sections;
my @items = $ini->items(SECTION);
my @items = $ini->items(SECTION, 1);
my @items = $ini->items(SECTION, all => 1);
my $value = $ini-> get_values(SECTION, ITEM);
my @vals = $ini-> get_values(SECTION, ITEM);
my $nvals = $ini-> nvalues(SECTION, ITEM);
$ini-> set_values(SECTION, ITEM, LIST);
$ini-> add_values(SECTION, ITEM, LIST);
$ini-> replace_values(SECTION, ITEM, LIST);
$ini-> write;
$ini-> clean;
$ini-> read( FILENAME);
$ini-> read( FILENAME, default => HASHREF_OR_ARRAYREF);
my $sec = $ini->section(SECTION);
$sec->{ITEM} = VALUE;
my $val = $sec->{ITEM};
delete $sec->{ITEM};
my %everything = %$sec;
%$sec = ();
for ( keys %$sec) { ... }
while ( my ($k,$v) = each %$sec) { ... }
METHODS
add_values SECTION, ITEM, @LIST
Adds LIST of string values to the ITEM in SECTION.
clean
Cleans all internal data in the object, including the name of the
file.
create PROFILE
Creates an instance of the class. The PROFILE is treated partly as
an array, partly as a hash. If PROFILE consists of a single item,
the item is treated as a filename. Otherwise, PROFILE is treated as
a hash, where the following keys are allowed:
file FILENAME
Selects name of file.
default %VALUES
Selects the initial values for the file, where VALUES is a two-
level hash of sections and items. It is passed to read, where
it is merged with the file data.
get_values SECTION, ITEM
Returns array of values for ITEM in SECTION. If called in scalar
context, and there is more than one value, the first value in list
is returned.
items SECTION [ HINTS ]
Returns items in SECTION. HINTS parameters is used to tell if a
multiple-valued item must be returned as several items of the same
name; HINTS can be supplied in the following forms:
items( $section, 1 ) items( $section, all => 1);
new PROFILE
Same as create.
nvalues SECTION, ITEM
Returns number of values in ITEM in SECTION.
read FILENAME, %PROFILE
Flushes the old content and opens new file. FILENAME is a text
string, PROFILE is a two-level hash of default values for the new
file. PROFILE is merged with the data from file, and the latter
keep the precedence. Does not return any success values but, warns
if any error is occurred.
replace_values SECTION, ITEM, @VALUES
Removes all values form ITEM in SECTION and assigns it to the new
list of VALUES.
section SECTION
Returns a tied hash for SECTION. All its read and write operations
are reflected in the caller object, which allows the following
syntax:
my $section = $inifile-> section( 'Sample section');
$section-> {Item1} = 'Value1';
which is identical to
$inifile-> set_items( 'Sample section', 'Item1', 'Value1');
sections
Returns array of section names.
set_values SECTION, ITEM, @VALUES
Assigns VALUES to ITEM in SECTION. If number of new values are
equal or greater than the number of the old, the method is same as
replace_values. Otherwise, the values with indices higher than the
number of new values are not touched.
write
Rewrites the file with the object content. The object keeps an
internal modification flag under name "{changed}"; in case it is
"undef", no actual write is performed.
AUTHORS
Anton Berezin, <tobez@plab.ku.dk>
Dmitry Karasik <dmitry@karasik.eu.org>