NAME
    Config::Fast - extremely fast configuration file parser

SYNOPSIS
        # default config format is a space-separated file
        company    "Supercool, Inc."
        support    nobody@nowhere.com

        # and then in Perl
        use Config::Fast;

        %cf = fastconfig;

        print "Thanks for visiting $cf{company}!\n";
        print "Please contact $cf{support} for support.\n";

DESCRIPTION
    This module is designed to provide an extremely lightweight way to parse
    moderately complex configuration files. As such, it exports a single
    function - "fastconfig()" - and does not provide any OO access methods.
    Still, it is fairly full-featured.

    Here's how it works:

        %cf = fastconfig($file, $delim);

    Basically, the "fastconfig()" function returns a hash of keys and values
    based on the directives in your configuration file. By default,
    directives and values are separated by whitespace in the config file,
    but this can be easily changed with the delimiter argument (see below).

    When the configuration file is read, its modification time is first
    checked and the results cached. On each call to "fastconfig()", if the
    config file has been changed, then the file is reread. Otherwise, the
    cached results are returned automatically. This makes this module great
    for "mod_perl" modules and scripts, one of the primary reasons I wrote
    it. Simply include this at the top of your script or inside of your
    constructor function:

        my %cf = fastconfig('/path/to/config/file.conf');

    If the file argument is omitted, then "fastconfig()" looks for a file
    named "$0.conf" in the "../etc" directory relative to the executable.
    For example, if you ran:

        /usr/local/bin/myapp

    Then "fastconfig()" will automatically look for:

        /usr/local/etc/myapp.conf

    This is great if you're really lazy and always in a hurry, like I am.

    If this doesn't work for you, simply supply a filename manually. Note
    that filename generation does not work in "mod_perl", so you'll need to
    supply a filename manually.

FILE FORMAT
    By default, your configuration file is split up on the first white space
    it finds. Subsequent whitespace is preserved intact - quotes are not
    needed (but you can include them if you wish). For example, this:

        company     Hardwood Flooring Supplies, Inc.

    Would result in:

        $cf{company} = 'Hardwood Flooring Supplies, Inc.';

    Of course, you can use the delimiter argument to change the delimiter to
    anything you want. To read Bourne shell style files, you would use:

        %cf = fastconfig($file, '=');

    This would let you read a file of the format:

        system=Windows
        kernel=sortof

    In all formats, any space around the value is stripped. This is one
    situation where you must include quotes:

        greeting="     Some leading and trailing space    "

    Each configuration directive is read sequentially and placed in the
    hash. If the same directive is present multiple times, the last one will
    override any earlier ones.

    In addition, you can reuse previously-defined variables by preceding
    them with a "$" sign. Hopefully this seems logical to you.

        owner       Bill Johnson
        company     $owner and Company, Ltd.
        website     http://www.billjohnsonltd.com
        products    $website/newproducts.html

    Of course, you can include literal characters by escaping them:

        price       \$5.00
        streetname  "Guido \"The Enforcer\" Scorcese"
        verbatim    'Single "quotes" are $$ money @ night'
        fileregex   '(\.exe|\.bat)$'

    Basically, this modules attempts to mimic, as closely as possible,
    Perl's own single and double quoting conventions.

    Variable names are case-insensitive by default (see "KEEPCASE"). In this
    example, the last setting of "ORACLE_HOME" will win:

        oracle_home /oracle
        Oracle_Home /oracle/orahome1
        ORACLE_HOME /oracle/OraHome2

    In addition, variables are converted to lowercase before being returned
    from "fastconfig()", meaning you would access the above as:

        print $cf{oracle_home};     # /oracle/OraHome2

    Speaking of which, an extra nicety is that this module will setup
    environment variables for any ALLCAPS variables you define. So, the
    above "ORACLE_HOME" variable will automatically be stuck into %ENV. But
    you would still access it in your program as "oracle_home". This may
    seem confusing at first, but once you use it, I think you'll find it
    makes sense.

    Finally, if called in a scalar context, then variables will be imported
    directly into the "main::" namespace, just like if you had defined them
    yourself:

        use Config::Fast;

        fastconfig('web.conf');

        print "The web address is: $website\n";     # website from conf

    Generally, this is regarded as dangerous and bad form, so I would
    strongly advise using this form only in throwaway scripts, or not at
    all.

VARIABLES
    There are several global variables that can be set which affect how
    "fastconfig()" works. These can be set in the following way:

        use Config::Fast;
        $Config::Fast::Variable = 'value';
        %cf = fastconfig;

    The recognized variables are:

    $Delim
        The config file delimiter to use. This can also be specified as the
        second argument to "fastconfig()". This defaults to "\s+".

    $KeepCase
        If set to 1, then "MixedCaseVariables" are maintained intact. By
        default, all variables are converted to lowercase.

    $EnvCaps
        If set to 1 (the default), then any "ALLCAPS" variables are set as
        environment variables. They are still returned in lowercase from
        "fastconfig()".

    $Arrays
        If set to 1, then settings that look like shell arrays are converted
        into a Perl array. For example, this config block:

            MATRIX[0]="a b c"
            MATRIX[1]="d e f"
            MATRIX[2]="g h i"

        Would be returned as:

            $conf{matrix} = [ 'a b c', 'd e f', 'g h i' ];

        Instead of the default:

            $conf{matrix[0]} = 'a b c';
            $conf{matrix[1]} = 'd e f';
            $conf{matrix[2]} = 'g h i';

    @Define
        This allows you to pre-define var=val pairs that are set before the
        parsing of the config file. I introduced this feature to solve a
        specific problem: Executable relocation. In my config files, I put
        definitions such as:

            # Parsed by Config::Fast and sourced by shell scripts
            BIN="$ROOT/bin"
            SBIN="$ROOT/sbin"
            LIB="$ROOT/lib"
            ETC="$ROOT/etc"

        With the goal that this file would be equally usable by both Perl
        and shell scripts.

        When parsed by "Config::Fast", I pre-define "ROOT" to "pwd" before
        calling "fastconfig()":

            use Cwd;
            my $pwd = cwd;
            @Config::Fast::Define = ([ROOT => $pwd]);
            my %conf = fastconfig("$pwd/conf/core.conf");

        Each element of

    %Convert
        This is a hash of regex patterns specifying values that should be
        converted before being returned. By default, values that look like
        "true|on|yes" will be converted to 1, and values that match
        "false|off|no" will be converted to 0. You could set your own
        conversions with:

            $Config::Fast::CONVERT{'fluffy|chewy'} = 'taffy';

        This would convert any settings of "fluffy" or "chewy" to "taffy".

NOTES
    Variables starting with a leading underscore are considered reserved and
    should not be used in your config file, unless you enjoy painfully
    mysterious behavior.

    For a much more full-featured config module, check out
    "Config::ApacheFormat". It can handle Apache style blocks, array values,
    etc, etc. This one is supposed to be fast and easy.

VERSION
    $Id: Fast.pm,v 1.7 2006/03/06 22:18:41 nwiger Exp $

AUTHOR
    Copyright (c) 2002-2005 Nathan Wiger <nate@wiger.org>. All Rights
    Reserved.

    This module is free software; you may copy this under the terms of the
    GNU General Public License, or the Artistic License, copies of which
    should have accompanied your Perl kit.

