NAME
       Config::General - Generic Config Module

SYNOPSIS
        use Config::General;
        $conf = new Config::General(-ConfigFile => "myconfig.rc");
        my %config = $conf->getall;


DESCRIPTION
       This module opens a config file and parses it's contents
       for you. After parsing the module returns a hash structure
       which contains the representation of the config file.

       The format of config files supported by Config::General is
       inspired by the well known apache config format, in fact,
       this module is 100% read-compatible to apache configs, but
       you can also just use simple name/value pairs in your config
       files.

       In addition to the capabilities of a apache config file
       it supports some enhancements such as here-documents, C-
       style comments or multiline options. It is also possible to
       save the config back to disk, which makes the module a
       perfect backend for configuration interfaces.

       It is possible to use variables in config files and there
       exists also support for object oriented access to the
       configuration.


INSTALLATION

	to install, type:
	  perl Makefile.PL
	  make
	  make test
	  make install

	to read the complete documentation, type:
	perldoc Config::General
	perldoc Config::General::Extended
	perldoc Config::General::Interpolated

	see some example config files which can
	be parsed with Config::Genreal in the subdirectory
	t/cfg.*


UPDATE

	If you are updating from version 1.xx, you might be interested,
	that some things in the API has changed, which might force you
	to change your application code. These changes were necessary
	to clean up the module interface. Now it has a consistent
	"look and feel" and behaves more naturally. Therefore historic
	remains were removed.

	Here is a short list:

	   o it is no more possible to use Config::General::Extended
	     and Config::General::Interpolated directly. Instead use
	     Config::General and turn on -InterPolateVars and
	     -ExtendedAccess respectively.

	   o the method NoMultiOptions() is deprecated. Set the parameter
	     -AllowMultiOptions to false when calling new() to create
	     a new Config::General object.

	   o the method save() is deprecated. Use save_file() or
	     save_string() instead.

	   o the parameter -file is deprecated. Use -ConfigFile instead.

	   o the parameter -hash is deprecated. Use -ConfigHash instead.

	For a more detailed explanation of changes refer to the Changelog.


COPYRIGHT
       Config::General
       Config::General::Extended
           Copyright (c) 2000-2003 by Thomas Linden <tom@daemon.de>

       Config::General::Interpolated
           Copyright (c) 2001 by Wei-Hon Chen <plasmaball@pchome.com.tw>
	   Copyright (c) 2002-2003 by Thomas Linden <tom@daemon.de>.

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

HOMEPAGE

       The homepage of Config::General is located at:

          http://www.daemon.de/config-general/

BUGS
       make test does currently not catch all possible scenarios.


AUTHOR
       Thomas Linden <tom@daemon.de>


VERSION
	2.20