phpman > perldoc > AppConfig::Args(3pm)

NAME
    AppConfig::Args - Perl5 module for reading command line arguments.

SYNOPSIS
        use AppConfig::Args;

        my $state   = AppConfig::State->new(\%cfg);
        my $cfgargs = AppConfig::Args->new($state);

        $cfgargs->parse(\@args);            # read args

OVERVIEW
    AppConfig::Args is a Perl5 module which reads command line arguments and uses the options
    therein to update variable values in an AppConfig::State object.

    AppConfig::File is distributed as part of the AppConfig bundle.

DESCRIPTION
  USING THE AppConfig::Args MODULE
    To import and use the AppConfig::Args module the following line should appear in your Perl
    script:

        use AppConfig::Args;

    AppConfig::Args is used automatically if you use the AppConfig module and create an
    AppConfig::Args object through the parse() method.

    AppConfig::File is implemented using object-oriented methods. A new AppConfig::Args object is
    created and initialised using the new() method. This returns a reference to a new
    AppConfig::File object. A reference to an AppConfig::State object should be passed in as the
    first parameter:

        my $state   = AppConfig::State->new();
        my $cfgargs = AppConfig::Args->new($state);

    This will create and return a reference to a new AppConfig::Args object.

  PARSING COMMAND LINE ARGUMENTS
    The "parse()" method is used to read a list of command line arguments and update the STATE
    accordingly. A reference to the list of arguments should be passed in.

        $cfgargs->parse(\@ARGV);

    If the method is called without a reference to an argument list then it will examine and
    manipulate @ARGV.

    If the PEDANTIC option is turned off in the AppConfig::State object, any parsing errors (invalid
    variables, unvalidated values, etc) will generate warnings, but not cause the method to return.
    Having processed all arguments, the method will return 1 if processed without warning or 0 if
    one or more warnings were raised. When the PEDANTIC option is turned on, the method generates a
    warning and immediately returns a value of 0 as soon as it encounters any parsing error.

    The method continues parsing arguments until it detects the first one that does not start with a
    leading dash, '-'. Arguments that constitute values for other options are not examined in this
    way.

FUTURE DEVELOPMENT
    This module was developed to provide backwards compatibility (to some degree) with the
    preceeding App::Config module. The argument parsing it provides is basic but offers a quick and
    efficient solution for those times when simple option handling is all that is required.

    If you require more flexibility in parsing command line arguments, then you should consider
    using the AppConfig::Getopt module. This is loaded and used automatically by calling the
    AppConfig getopt() method.

    The AppConfig::Getopt module provides considerably extended functionality over the
    AppConfig::Args module by delegating out the task of argument parsing to Johan Vromans'
    Getopt::Long module. For advanced command-line parsing, this module (either Getopt::Long by
    itself, or in conjunction with AppConfig::Getopt) is highly recommended.

AUTHOR
    Andy Wardley, <abw AT wardley.org>

COPYRIGHT
    Copyright (C) 1997-2007 Andy Wardley. All Rights Reserved.

    Copyright (C) 1997,1998 Canon Research Centre Europe Ltd.

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

SEE ALSO
    AppConfig, AppConfig::State, AppConfig::Getopt, Getopt::Long