man > Config::Tiny(3pm)

📄 NAME

Config::Tiny - Read/Write .ini style files with as little code as possible

🚀 Quick Reference

Use Case	Command	Description
Read config from file	Config::Tiny->read( 'file.conf' )	Open and parse a .ini file
Read config from string	Config::Tiny->read_string( 'alpha=bet' )	Parse a config string directly
Write config to file	$config->write( 'file.conf' )	Save current config to disk
Write config to string	$config->write_string()	Generate file content as string
Access root property	$config->{'_'}{'rootproperty'}	Get value from root section (key '_')
Access section property	$config->{'section'}{'key'}	Get value from a named section
Add new section	$config->{'newsection'} = { 'this' => 'that' }	Create a new section hash
Change a value	$config->{'section'}{'Foo'} = 'Not Bar!'	Modify existing property

📋 SYNOPSIS

# In your configuration file
rootproperty=blah

[section]

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 => {  "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 $
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'.

📝 DESCRIPTION

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.

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.

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.

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.

⚙️ CONFIGURATION FILE SYNTAX

Files are the same format as for MS Windows *.ini files. For example:

[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->{_}.

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.

🛠️ METHODS

🔧 errstr()

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.

🔧 new([$config])

Here, the [] indicate an optional parameter.

The constructor new creates and returns a Config::Tiny object.

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.

🔧 read($filename, [$encoding])

Here, the [] indicate an optional parameter.

The read constructor reads a config file, $filename, and returns a new Config::Tiny object containing the properties in the file.

$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 true on success or undef on error.

See t/04.utf8.t and t/04.utf8.txt.

🔧 write_string()

Generates the file content for the object and returns it as a string.

❓ FAQ

❓ What happens if a key is repeated?

The last value is retained, overwriting any previous values.

See t/06.repeat.key.t.

❓ Why can't I put comments at the ends of lines?

• The # char is only introduces a comment when it's at the start of a line. 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.
• Comments matching /\s\;\s.+$//g; are ignored. 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.

❓ Why can't I omit the '=' signs?

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.

❓ Why do I have to assign the result of a method call to a variable?

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(" 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'.

❓ Can I use a file called '0' (zero)?

Yes. See t/05.zero.t (test code) and t/0 (test data).

⚠️ CAVEATS

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.

🗄️ Repository

https://github.com/ronsavage/Config-Tiny.git

📞 SUPPORT

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.

✍️ AUTHOR

Adam Kennedy <adamk AT cpan.org>

Maintanence from V 2.15: Ron Savage <http://savage.net.au/>.

🙏 ACKNOWLEGEMENTS

Thanks to Sherzod Ruzmetov <sherzodr AT cpan.org> for Config::Simple, which inspired this module by being not quite "simple" enough for me :).

🔗 SEE ALSO

See, amongst many: Config::Simple and Config::General.

See Config::Tiny::Ordered (and possibly others) for the preservation of the order of the entries in the file.

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

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.