NAME¶
confget
—
read a variable from a configuration file
SYNOPSIS¶
confget |
[ -cSx ]
[-N |
-n ]
[-f
filename ]
[-m
pattern ]
[-P
postfix ]
[-p
prefix ]
[-s
section ]
[-t
type ]
varname... |
confget |
[ - ]
[-N |
-n ]
[-f
filename ]
[-m
pattern ]
[-P
postfix ]
[-p
prefix ]
[-s
section ]
[-t
type ]
-L
pattern... |
confget |
[ - ]
[-N |
-n ]
[-f
filename ]
[-m
pattern ]
[-P
postfix ]
[-p
prefix ]
[-s
section ]
[-t
type ]
-l |
confget |
[ -f
filename ]
-q sections
[-t
type ] |
DESCRIPTION¶
The
confget
utility examines a INI-style
configuration file and retrieves the value of the specified variables from the
specified section. Its intended use is to let shell scripts use the same
INI-style configuration files as other programs, to avoid duplication of data.
The
confget
utility may retrieve the values
of one or more variables, list all the variables in a specified section, list
only those whose names or values match a specified pattern (shell glob or
regular expression), or check if a variable is present in the file at all. It
has a “shell-quoting” output mode that quotes the variable
values in a way suitable for passing them directly to a Bourne-style shell.
Options:
-c
- Check-only mode; exit with a code of 0 if any of the variables are present
in the configuration file, and 1 if there are none.
-f
filename
- Specify the configuration file to read from, or “-” (a
single dash) for standard input.
-h
- Display program usage information and exit.
-L
- Variable list mode; display the names and values of all variables in the
specified section with names matching one or more specified patterns.
-l
- List mode; display the names and values of all variables in the specified
section.
-m
pattern
- Only display variables with if their values match the specified
pattern.
-N
- Always display the variable name along with the value.
-n
- Never display the variable name, only the value.
-P
postfix
- Display this string after the variable name as a postfix.
-p
prefix
- Display this string before the variable name as a prefix.
-q
query
- Query for a specific type of information. For the present, the only
supported value for the query argument is
“sections”, which lists the names of the sections defined in
the configuration file.
-S
- Quote the variable values so that the “var=value” lines may
be passed directly to the Bourne shell.
-s
section
- Specify the configuration section to read.
If this option is not specified,
confget
will use the first section found in the configuration file. However, if
the configuration file contains variable definitions before a section
header, confget
will only examine them
instead.
-T
- List the available configuration file types that may be selected by the
-t
option.
-t
type
- Specify the configuration file type.
-V
- Display program version information and exit.
-x
- Treat the patterns as regular expressions instead of shell glob
patterns.
ENVIRONMENT¶
Not taken into consideration.
EXIT STATUS¶
If the
-c
option is specified, the
confget
utility will exit with a status of
0 if any of the specified variables exist in the config file and 1 if none of
them are present.
In normal operation, no matter whether any variables were found in the
configuration file or not, the
confget
utility exits with a status of 0 upon normal completion. If any errors should
occur while accessing or parsing the configuration file, the
confget
utility will display a diagnostic
message on the standard error stream and exit with a status of 1.
EXAMPLES¶
Retrieve the variable
machine_id
from the
system
section of a configuration file:
confget -f h.conf -s system
machine_id
Retrieve the
page_id
variable from an HTTP
GET request, but only if it is a valid number:
confget -f- -t http_get -x -m '^+$'
page_id
Retrieve the variable
hostname
from the
db
section, but only if it ends in
“.ringlet.net”:
confget -f h.conf -s db -m
'*.ringlet.net' hostname
Display the names and values of all variables in the
system
section with names beginning with
“mach” or ending in “name”, appending a
“cfg_” at the start of each variable name:
confget -f h.conf -s system -p 'cfg_'
-L 'mach*' '*name'
Display the names and values of all variables in the
system
section:
confget -f h.conf -s system
-l
Safely read the contents of the
db
section:
eval `confget -f h.conf -s db -p db_
-S -l`
SEE ALSO¶
For another way to parse INI files, see the
Config::IniFiles(3) Perl module.
STANDARDS¶
No standards documentation was harmed in the process of creating
confget
.
BUGS¶
Please report any bugs in
confget
to the
author.
AUTHOR¶
The
confget
utility was conceived and written
by
Peter Pentchev
⟨roam@ringlet.net⟩ in 2008.