Config::Vars - A module for keeping configuration variables in a central perl file.

This documentation describes version 0.01 of Config::Vars.pm, May 23, 2003.

 package My_Config_File;
 use Config::Vars;

 # Declare and initialize some variables in your config file.
 var $foo  = 'some value';
 var $arr  = qw(some values);
 var %hash = (some => 'values');

 # Declare an initialize some readonly variables.
 ro $foo2  = 'some value';
 ro $arr2  = qw(some values);
 ro %hash2 = (some => 'values');

Most sizeable projects require a number of configuration variables to be stored somewhere. Sometimes a config file is the best solution for this, but often a plain Perl module is used for this. The nice thing about using a Perl module is that you can do computations in the file, for example, initializing variables from previously-defined ones.

The problem is that you have to do a bunch of repetitive accounting work to ensure the variables will be accessible from your main program and other modules. You should set up the module as an Exporter so that all the various components of your system will have access to the config variables in their own namespaces. You then need to put all of the config variable names into @EXPORT_OK. If you want your module to be strict-safe, you need to declare them all with our or use vars. Finally, you have to initialize the variable. It goes something like this:

 @EXPORT_OK = qw($president);
 use vars qw($president);
 $president = 'Grover Cleveland';

Writing each variable name three times is a tedious waste of time. This module takes care of the repetitive coding tasks that you need to do in order to make your configuration module work.

Config::Vars also takes care of importing the Exporter module and setting up @EXPORT_OK and @ISA.

 use Config::Vars;
 use Config::Vars qw(nowarn exportall);

By default, Config::Vars puts the variables you declare into @EXPORT_OK and warns when you use "ro" to declare variables when the Readonly module is not available.

If you use the 'nowarn' option, Config::Vars will not issue a warning when you use "ro" when Readonly is not installed. This can be useful if you want to enforce read-only-ness on systems where Readonly is installed, but still want your program to work without complaint on systems where it's not installed.

If you use the 'exportall' option, Config::Vars puts all of your declared variables into @EXPORT instead of @EXPORT_OK. This is not recommended in general, because it can lead to hard-to-find bugs involving variable name collisions. But it can sometimes be convenient for small config files if you're aware of the issues.

See the Exporter module documentation for information on @EXPORT_OK and @EXPORT.

var

 var $variable_name = $some_value;
 var @variable_name = @some_values;
 var %variable_name = %some_values;

This declares a variable. The variable is initialized and its name is appended to @EXPORT_OK.

ro

 ro $variable_name = $some_value;
 ro @variable_name = @some_values;
 ro %variable_name = %some_values;

This declares a readonly variable, if you have the Readonly module installed. If you don't, a warning will be printed to STDERR and the module will continue as if you had used var.

If you don't want the warning message to be displayed, specify "nowarn" on the "use Config::Vars" line; see USE above.

 # ==== CONFIG FILE MyConfig.pm ====
 use strict;
 package MyConfig;
 use Config::Vars;

 ro $db_user    = 'my_db_app';      # database application username
 ro $db_pw      = $database_user;   # password (often the same as username)
 ro $db_connect = 'dbi:mysql';      # database connect string
 var $dbh;                          # global database handle
 # ==== END CONFIG FILE ====

 # ==== SOME LIBRARY Lib.pm ====
 use strict;
 package Lib;
 use MyConfig qw($db_user $db_pw $db_connect $dbh);

 sub connect
 {
     $dbh = DBI->connect($db_connect, $db_user, $db_pw);
     die "Can't connect" unless $dbh;
 }
 # ==== END LIBRARY Lib.pm ====

 # ==== MAIN PROGRAM ====
 use strict;
 use MyConfig qw($dbh);    # Configuration variables for this app
 use Lib;         # Utility library for this app

 Lib::connect;    # Call utility function

 # Now $dbh is available.  Lib.pm and main share the same $dbh
 my $sth = $dbh->prepare(...)
 # ==== END MAIN PROGRAM ====

• All errors are reported as being from the "use Config::Vars" line of the calling module, instead of the line where the error actually occurred.
• 'var' and 'ro' are only recognized if they are the first non-whitespace characters on the line. Thus the following won't work:
  
  

   var $foo=7; var $bar=8;
  
  

• The first non-whitespace character after the variable name on a 'var' or 'ro' line must be a semicolon or an equals sign. So the following would not be accepted:
  
  

   var %is_bird        # This comment messes things up.
       = ( vulture => 1, tiger => 0 );
  
  

The following symbols appear to be exported, but they're actually sort of magical (because they're implemented via source filter).

 var
 ro

 Carp
 Filter::Simple
 Readonly      (if you want the 'ro' directive to work)

The Exporter module, especially the bits about @EXPORT_OK and @EXPORT.

The Camel book, esp. the bits about @ISA and use vars.

The Reaodnly module.

Eric J. Roode, roode@cpan.org

Copyright (c) 2003 by Eric J. Roode. All Rights Reserved. This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

If you have suggestions for improvement, please drop me a line. If you make improvements to this software, I ask that you please send me a copy of your changes. Thanks.