Hi all-
I've written a module that can parse the Apache httpd.conf config file
(and in fact any Apache-like config file). It will take a set of
directive like:
ServerName www.mydomain.com
UseCanonicalName Off
And parse it case-insensitively, returning a ref to a hash:
my $ac = new Apache::Config;
my $conf = $ac->readconf($configfile);
print $conf->{servername}; # = "www.mydomain.com";
print $conf->{usecanonicalname}; # = 0 (not undef so can test
# for defined() still)
I am also finishing up the ability to parse within contexts, such as
<Directory> and <Location>. I am still unsure of the interface, I have
two ideas:
1. multi-level hash, i.e.
$conf->{"directory /"}->{sethandler}
3. individual functions, i.e.
$conf->directory("/")->{sethandler}
If anyone has any input, I'm all ears. I like the first one because it's
really flexible, the problem is that it's difficult to search. The
second one helps with this issue, but the downside is that new functions
have to be added if new Apache contexts are defined. It also makes the
module less flexible as a general config parser, unless you play some
tricks with the AutoLoader ala Shell.
In any case, I have several questions:
1. Does a module like this exist anywhere? I saw Doug's
Apache::httpd_conf, but this only takes care of writing
a very minimal config file. I looked thru all the
Apache:: modules but didn't see one.
2. Is the name Apache::Config a good name for this module?
I also played around with Apache::ReadConf but this
prevents me from adding methods that write config files
as well (I'd like to provide a writeconf()).
Thanks as always for your help and input.
-Nate
