From: Tim Pease <tim.pease@...>
Date: 2007-01-31T04:39:57+09:00
Subject: Re: Howto parse or eval a config-file?

On 1/30/07, ChrisKaelin <ck1@stonedragon.ch> wrote:
> I'm currently looking for a simple way to parse a configuration file
> in a ruby-script. Is eval a good way to do that? YAML seems a bit an
> overkill to learn for such a small task...
>
> Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
>
> So far I'm doing this:
>
> the config-file:
>
> Conf = {
>         'host'        => 'localhost',
>         'title'       => 'TIITEL',
>         'mailhost'    => 'mailhost'
> }
>
> the eval-code:
>
> begin
>                 eval File.new(configFile).read
>                 rescue ScriptError=>e
>                 warn("An error occurred while reading #{$configFile}: ", e)
>         else
>                 $host             = Conf['host']
>                 $title            = Conf['title']
>                 $mailhost         = Conf['mailhost']
> end
>


Try using load instead ...


begin
  load $configFile
resuce Exception => e
  warn("An error occurred while reading #{$configFile}: ", e)
end


And just use the configuration hash directly instead of creating lots
of global variables -- i.e. change Conf = {  in your config file to
$conf = {   That way all your classes can just grab what they need
straight from $conf.

Beware of naming collisions in the global variable namespace.  Someone
else might think $conf is a great place to store their configuration
items, too.

Blessings,
TwP