"PAR'ing" XML configs?

[guice]

I'm going to be using PAR to help packages scripts into a single archive. The problem I'm facing:

I want to create a single script that is very self contained, but I want to use XML for the config file and I don't want to have to maintain two files on each remote system.

To you PAR users; Is there anyway to self contain the XML file within the PAR package and not have to worry about maintaining two spereate files on the remote systems? Meaning, I want to put the XML file within the PAR package and be able to use it.

[rinceWind]

You need to use the -a option to pp.

     -a, --addfile=FILE|DIR
         Add an extra file into the package.  If the file is a
         directory, recursively add all files inside that
         directory, with links turned into actual files.

         By default, files are placed under "/" inside the
         package with their original names.  You may override
         this by appending the target filename after a ";", like
         this:

             % pp -a "old_filename.txt;new_filename.txt"
             % pp -a "old_dirname;new_dirname"

         You may specify "-a" multiple times.

[davidrw]

Yes, but what OP needs is a way then, from the perl script, to know where the included file is in order to read it. This part of the FAQ led me to look at $ENV{PAR_TEMP} and see what the directory structure was and where the added test.txt was placed.

# pp -o a.exe -a test.txt test.pl

#test.pl:
open FILE, $ENV{PAR_TEMP} . "/inc/" . "test.txt";
while(<FILE>){
  print;
}
close FILE;

[guice]

That's it. Thanks!

Everything is extraced under the $ENV{PAR_TEMP}/inc/. I was able to successfully create a test script using the following:

test.xml

<opt date="test>
  <test>This is a test</test>
  <company id="test" />
</opt>

test.pl

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use XML::Simple;
use Data::Dumper;

my $xml = new XML::Simple;
my $ret = $xml->($ENV{'PAR_TEMP'} . "/inc/test.xml");

print Dumper($ret);

Compiled with: pp -o test.exe -a test.xml test.pl

Moved the PAR package to another directory and ran it. It ran successfully.

I guess for testing, one can check to see if PAR_TEMP is set. If it's not, assume a command line run else assume PAR run, since the PATH to your file will definatly be different based on a PAR or command line run.

[guice]

Nice! Then do I access the file like I normally would: $xml=XMLin("config.xml")? Or do I access it via "/config.xml"?

Thanks again though, this is one step I needed, which I actually forgot about. The problem I was facing was referencing the file...

[holli]

...but I want to use XML for the config file

I hope for the sake of your immortal soul, that in your xml you store something more complicated than

<options>
  <section name="users">
    <option name="larry" value="in0n3line?" />
    <option name="dominus" value="errorme$$age!" />
  </section>
</options>

Such data, which could far easier (and more robust than with XML::Simple (sometimes it's a PITA to get XML::Simple to parse or write how you want it to)) written as classic INI-Files. Using XML for this may be considered NTBI™ (Not The Best Idea). For a deeper discussion refer Configuration file design an my reply to it.

[guice]

It is far more complex than that. A small taste of it (a bit large to write it out fully)

<opt>
  <tmpl_xml>
    <table>
      <pkey>key1</pkey>
      <pkey>ky2</pkey>
    </table>
  </tmpl_xml>
  <config>
    <bad_procs>
      <proc name="procd" />
      <proc name="procd2">
        <exempt>hostname</exempt>
      </proc>
    </bad_procs>
    <perm_checks>
      <file group="grp" path="/etc" user="user" perm="00755" />
    </perm_checks>
    <oneliners>
      <command id="non-root RC scripts">
        find /etc/rc?.d /etc/init.d ! -user root
      </command> 
    </oneliners>
  </config>
</opt>

There's really much more than that, but it's just a small sample of it. It's a configuration audit check/data collector for remote systems. The config is to define all files to capture, processes to check good/bad, exceptions, port checks, etc.... It's actually a rather large XML file (443 lines--244 lines with AttrIndent off). Currently I'm using XML::Simple to parse it, but not sure if that's really the best way to parse it. But for now, it's the only possible resource I have (can't compile expact due removal of our compile tools).

sometimes it's a PITA to get XML::Simple to parse or write how you want it to

Yeah, fully aware of that. This is why I'm starting with the config file. I'm getting it exactly the way I want it and getting it parsed just how I want it with XML::Simple. Right now, everything's pretty much near perfect (I have to access my one-liners one more hash level than I'd like, but it's no biggy--only an additiona 8 characters to type in my code, once).