This is the README file for AppConfig Version 1.55

AppConfig is a bundle of Perl5 modules for reading configuration files 
and parsing command line arguments.  This is a descendant of, and 
supercedes the App::Config module.  Functionality is extended over the
final version of App::Config (1.09) and includes many new features.  This
module has been developed and in the process, renamed, as part of an 
effort to unify the various Perl modules for parsing configuration files
and command line arguments.

AppConfig has a powerful but easy to use module for parsing configuration
files.  It also has a simple and efficient module for parsing command line
arguments.  For fully-featured command line parsing, a module is provided
for interfacing AppConfig to Johan Vromans' extensive Getopt::Long module.
Johan will continue to develop the functionality of this package and its
features will automatically become available through AppConfig.  

All of the modules and features of the AppConfig bundle are easily 
accessible through the AppConfig.pm module.

Relevant changes to the AppConfig module are documented in the Changes 
files.

The rest of this document contains information extracted from relevant 
sections of the AppConfig.pm documentation.


NAME
    AppConfig - application configuration files via command line, config
    file, etc.

OVERVIEW
    AppConfig is a Perl5 module for managing application configuration
    information. It maintains the state of any number of variables and
    provides methods for parsing configuration files and command line
    arguments.

    Variables values may be set via configuration files. Variables may be
    flags (On/Off), take a single value, or take multiple values stored as a
    a list or hash. The number of arguments a variable expects is determined
    by its configuration when defined.

        # flags
        verbose 
        nohelp
        debug = On

        # single value
        home  = /home/abw/

        # multiple list value
        file = /tmp/file1
        file = /tmp/file2

        # multiple hash value
        book  camel = Programming Perl
        book  llama = Learning Perl

    The '-' prefix can be used to reset a variable to its default value and
    the '+' prefix can be used to set it to 1

        -verbose
        +debug

    Variable, environment variable and tilde (home directory) expansions can
    be applied (selectively, if necessary) to the values read from
    configuration files:

        home = ~                    # home directory
        nntp = ${NNTPSERVER}        # environment variable
        html = $home/html           # internal variables
        img  = $html/images

    Configuration files may be arranged in blocks as per the style of Win32
    "INI" files.

        [file]
        site = kfs
        src  = ~/websrc/docs/$site
        lib  = ~/websrc/lib
        dest = ~/public_html/$site

        [page]
        header = $lib/header
        footer = $lib/footer

    Variables may also be set by parsing command line arguments.

        myapp -verbose -site kfs -file f1 -file f2

    AppConfig provides a simple method (args()) for parsing command line
    arguments. A second method (getopt()) allows more complex argument
    processing by delegation to Johan Vroman's Getopt::Long module.

PREREQUISITES
    AppConfig requires Perl 5.005 or later.

    The Getopt::Long and Test::More modules should be installed. If you are
    using a recent version of Perl (e.g. 5.8.0) then these should already be
    installed.

OBTAINING AND INSTALLING THE AppConfig MODULE BUNDLE
    The AppConfig module bundle is available from CPAN. As the 'perlmod'
    manual page explains:

        CPAN stands for the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network.
        This is a globally replicated collection of all known Perl
        materials, including hundreds of unbundled modules.  

        [...]

        For an up-to-date listing of CPAN sites, see
        http://www.perl.com/perl/ or ftp://ftp.perl.com/perl/ .

    Within the CPAN archive, AppConfig is in the category:

        12) Option, Argument, Parameter and Configuration File Processing

    The module is available in the following directories:

        /modules/by-module/AppConfig/AppConfig-<version>.tar.gz
        /authors/id/ABW/AppConfig-<version>.tar.gz

    AppConfig is distributed as a single gzipped tar archive file:

        AppConfig-<version>.tar.gz

    Note that "<version>" represents the current AppConfig version number,
    of the form "n.nn", e.g. "3.14". See the REVISION section below to
    determine the current version number for AppConfig.

    Unpack the archive to create a AppConfig installation directory:

        gunzip AppConfig-<version>.tar.gz
        tar xvf AppConfig-<version>.tar

    'cd' into that directory, make, test and install the modules:

        cd AppConfig-<version>
        perl Makefile.PL
        make
        make test
        make install

    The 't' sub-directory contains a number of test scripts that are run
    when a 'make test' is run.

    The 'make install' will install the module on your system. You may need
    administrator privileges to perform this task. If you install the module
    in a local directory (for example, by executing "perl Makefile.PL
    LIB=~/lib" in the above - see "perldoc MakeMaker" for full details), you
    will need to ensure that the PERL5LIB environment variable is set to
    include the location, or add a line to your scripts explicitly naming
    the library location:

        use lib '/local/path/to/lib';

    The 'examples' sub-directory contains some simple examples of using the
    AppConfig modules.

AUTHOR
    Andy Wardley, <abw@wardley.org>

VERSION
    This is version 1.55.

COPYRIGHT
    Copyright (C) 1997-2003 Andy Wardley. All Rights Reserved.

    Copyright (C) 1997,1998 Canon Research Centre Europe Ltd.

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

SEE ALSO
    AppConfig::State, AppConfig::File, AppConfig::Args, AppConfig::Getopt
    Getopt::Long

