Config::INI::Reader(3pm)				User Contributed Perl Documentation				  Config::INI::Reader(3pm)

NAME

       Config::INI::Reader - a subclassable .ini-file parser

VERSION

       version 0.019

SYNOPSIS

       If family.ini contains:

	 admin = rjbs

	 [rjbs]
	 awesome = yes
	 height = 5' 10"

	 [mj]
	 awesome = totally
	 height = 23"

       Then when your program contains:

	 my $hash = Config::INI::Reader->read_file('family.ini');

       $hash will contain:

	 {
	   '_'	=> { admin => 'rjbs' },
	   rjbs => {
	     awesome => 'yes',
	     height  => q{5' 10"},
	   },
	   mj	=> {
	     awesome => 'totally',
	     height  => '23"',
	   },
	 }

DESCRIPTION

       Config::INI::Reader is yet another config module implementing yet another slightly different take on the undeniably easy to read ".ini"
       file format.  Its default behavior is quite similar to that of Config::Tiny, on which it is based.

       The chief difference is that Config::INI::Reader is designed to be subclassed to allow for side-effects and self-reconfiguration to occur
       during the course of reading its input.

METHODS FOR READING CONFIG

       These methods are all that most users will need: they read configuration from a source of input, then they return the data extracted from
       that input.  There are three reader methods, "read_string", "read_file", and "read_handle".  The first two are implemented in terms of the
       third.  It iterates over lines in a file, calling methods on the reader when events occur.  Those events are detailed below in the "METHODS
       FOR SUBCLASSING" section.

       All of the reader methods return an unblessed reference to a hash.

       All throw an exception when they encounter an error.

   read_file
	 my $hash_ref = Config::INI::Reader->read_file($filename);

       Given a filename, this method returns a hashref of the contents of that file.

   read_string
	 my $hash_ref = Config::INI::Reader->read_string($string);

       Given a string, this method returns a hashref of the contents of that string.

   read_handle
	 my $hash_ref = Config::INI::Reader->read_handle($io_handle);

       Given an IO::Handle, this method returns a hashref of the contents of that handle.

METHODS FOR SUBCLASSING

       These are the methods you need to understand and possibly change when subclassing Config::INI::Reader to handle a different format of
       input.

   current_section
	 my $section_name = $reader->current_section;

       This method returns the name of the current section.  If no section has yet been set, it returns the result of calling the
       "starting_section" method.

   parse_section_header
	 my $name = $reader->parse_section_header($line);

       Given a line of input, this method decides whether the line is a section-change declaration.  If it is, it returns the name of the section
       to which to change.  If the line is not a section-change, the method returns false.

   change_section
	 $reader->change_section($section_name);

       This method is called whenever a section change occurs in the file.

       The default implementation is to change the current section into which data is being read and to initialize that section to an empty
       hashref.

   parse_value_assignment
	 my ($name, $value) = $reader->parse_value_assignment($line);

       Given a line of input, this method decides whether the line is a property value assignment.  If it is, it returns the name of the property
       and the value being assigned to it.  If the line is not a property assignment, the method returns false.

   set_value
	 $reader->set_value($name, $value);

       This method is called whenever an assignment occurs in the file.  The default behavior is to change the value of the named property to the
       given value.

   starting_section
	 my $section = Config::INI::Reader->starting_section;

       This method returns the name of the starting section.  The default is: "_"

   can_ignore
	 do_nothing if $reader->can_ignore($line)

       This method returns true if the given line of input is safe to ignore.  The default implementation ignores lines that contain only
       whitespace or comments.

   preprocess_line
	 $reader->preprocess_line($line);

       This method is called to preprocess each line after it's read but before it's parsed.  The default implementation just strips inline
       comments.  Alterations to the line are made in place.

   handle_unparsed_line
	 $reader->handle_unparsed_line( $io, $line );

       This method is called when the reader encounters a line that doesn't look like anything it recognizes.  By default, it throws an exception.

   finalize
	 $reader->finalize;

       This method is called when the reader has finished reading in every line of the file.

   new
	 my $reader = Config::INI::Reader->new;

       This method returns a new reader.  This generally does not need to be called by anything but the various "read_*" methods, which create a
       reader object only ephemerally.

ORIGIN

       Originaly derived from Config::Tiny, by Adam Kennedy.

AUTHOR

       Ricardo Signes <rjbs@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

       This software is copyright (c) 2007 by Ricardo Signes.

       This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.

perl v5.14.2							    2011-12-15						  Config::INI::Reader(3pm)