Re: Config Files in Perl

Some thoughts:

#1 only allows single options e.g name=value. You could use Config::INI::Simple or something similar
numbers 2 and 3 can be very dangerous if you make mistakes in them or if people who edit them try to do "bad things"
I prefer using XML-based config files and using, say, XML::Simple to parse the file. It is just about as easy as parsing name=value files.
You could use Config::General or Config::Generic for more complex configurations, but why not just go with XML?

Comment on Re: Config Files in Perl

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Re^2: Config Files in Perl by blazar (Canon) on Nov 22, 2006 at 22:34 UTC
I prefer using XML-based config files and using, say, XML::Simple to parse the file. It is just about as easy as parsing name=value files. I sort-of second that, except that I'd use YAML. Even if one doesn't know it (I don't really), it should be easy enough to look at some samples and imitate them, or instruct one about how to do so in a few words. It's more human readable and writable IMHO.	[reply]
Re^3: Config Files in Perl by geekphilosopher (Friar) on Nov 22, 2006 at 22:37 UTC
I agree, YAML is great. Loading and saving a config is dead easy, and the config is very human read/writable.	[reply]
Re^2: Config Files in Perl by chromatic (Archbishop) on Nov 22, 2006 at 22:26 UTC
... why not just go with XML? Because humans might have to modify the configuration file?	[reply]
Re^3: Config Files in Perl by traveler (Parson) on Nov 22, 2006 at 23:06 UTC
They might. OTOH it might all be done by software. That wasn't specified. Now, I agree that XML is not beautiful, but so many people who might edit config files probably are at least somwehat used to HTML, and even vim knows XML highlighting. I do not think it is a problem unless the config file designer goes wild...	[reply]
Re^4: Config Files in Perl by Firefly258 (Beadle) on Nov 23, 2006 at 07:29 UTC
You should be programming away from bad/worst case scenario not around assumptions about the end-user. XML sure is terse and unweildy, no matter whether a human is used to it or not, the chances of things going wrong as a result of a "configuration error" when manually editing XML are high. However, in the day and age of RAD, it's wise and definitely feasible to have a UI manage and maintain the configuration file(s), XML or otherwise.	[reply]
Re^5: Config Files in Perl by traveler (Parson) on Nov 23, 2006 at 17:15 UTC
Re^6: Config Files in Perl by chromatic (Archbishop) on Nov 23, 2006 at 18:44 UTC
Re^6: Config Files in Perl by Firefly258 (Beadle) on Nov 23, 2006 at 23:35 UTC

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