NAME

config_data - Query or change configuration of Perl modules

SYNOPSIS


  # Get config/feature values
  config_data --module Foo::Bar --feature bazzable
  config_data --module Foo::Bar --config magic_number
 
  # Set config/feature values
  config_data --module Foo::Bar --set_feature bazzable=1
  config_data --module Foo::Bar --set_config magic_number=42
 
  # Print a usage message
  config_data --help

DESCRIPTION

The 

config_data
tool provides a command-line interface to the configuration of Perl modules. By configuration, we mean something akin to user preferences or local settings. This is a formalization and abstraction of the systems that people like Andreas Koenig (
CPAN::Config
), Jon Swartz (
HTML::Mason::Config
), Andy Wardley (
Template::Config
), and Larry Wall (perl’s own Config.pm) have developed independently.

The configuration system emplyed here was developed in the context of 

Module::Build
. Under this system, configuration information for a module 
Foo
, for example, is stored in a module called 
Foo::ConfigData
) (I would have called it 
Foo::Config
, but that was taken by all those other systems mentioned in the previous paragraph...). These 
...::ConfigData
modules contain the configuration data, as well as publically accessible methods for querying and setting (yes, actually re-writing) the configuration data. The 
config_data
script (whose docs you are currently reading) is merely a front-end for those methods. If you wish, you may create alternate front-ends.

The two types of data that may be stored are called 

config
values and 
feature
values. A 
config
value may be any perl scalar, including references to complex data structures. It must, however, be serializable using 
Data::Dumper
. A 
feature
is a boolean (1 or 0) value.

USAGE

This script functions as a basic getter/setter wrapper around the configuration of a single module. On the command line, specify which module’s configuration you’re interested in, and pass options to get or set 

config
or 
feature
values. The following options are supported:
module Specifies the name of the module to configure (required).
feature When passed the name of a 
feature
, shows its value. The value will be 1 if the feature is enabled, 0 if the feature is not enabled, or empty if the feature is unknown. When no feature name is supplied, the names and values of all known features will be shown.
config When passed the name of a 
config
entry, shows its value. The value will be displayed using 
Data::Dumper
(or similar) as perl code. When no config name is supplied, the names and values of all known config entries will be shown.
set_feature Sets the given 
feature
to the given boolean value. Specify the value as either 1 or 0.
set_config Sets the given 
config
entry to the given value.
eval If the 
--eval
option is used, the values in 
set_config
will be evaluated as perl code before being stored. This allows moderately complicated data structures to be stored. For really complicated structures, you probably shouldn’t use this command-line interface, just use the Perl API instead.
help Prints a help message, including a few examples, and exits.

AUTHOR

Ken Williams, kwilliams@cpan.org

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 1999, Ken Williams. All rights reserved.

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

SEE ALSO

Module::Build(3), perl(1).

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