---
name: "ConfHelper"
section: "3pm"
platform: "linux"
package: "libconfhelper-perl"
version: "0.12.5"
release: "Debian 4.0 (Etch)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/ConfHelper"
---

# ConfHelper(3pm)

Configuration file management

## NAME

ConfHelper - Configuration file management

## SYNOPSIS

```
  use ConfHelper;
  $file = new ConfHelper('myprogram', '/etc/myprogram.conf');
```

## DESCRIPTION

ConfHelper is a module that is designed to help you edit configuration files in an automated way without trampling on the toes of users or other programs. It does this by using "chunking"; that is, your program modifies a certain chunk of the config file and does not touch everything else.  While this approach is not appropriate everywhere, it can be remarkably useful anyway.

The methods that return a chunk of data (an entire configuration area) return an array.  Each element in the array is a single line that has been run through *chomp()*.  When passed back to *set()* functions, the newline character is added back on before being written to disk.

## METHODS

- new($package, $filename)

  Creates a new object.  The *package* parameter declares the name of your program or package, and the *filename* parameter specifies the name of the configuration file.

- getversion

  Returns the version of the ConfHelper module that created the object.

- config($variable, $value)

  Sets a configuration variable.  The following are valid configuration variables:

  - startline

    Specifies the complete text of the line that is used to identify the start of the ConfHelper section of your config file.

  - endline

    Specifies the complete text of the line that is used to identify the end of the ConfHelper section of your config file.

- hasconfarea

  Returns 1 if the file has a configuration area, and 0 otherwise.

- getconfarea

  Returns your configuration area from the configuration file as a large array.  If there is none, it returns undef.

- getotherareas

  Returns an array that represents all non-ConfHelper areas of your configuration file.

- setconfarea(@confarea)

  This method will set the configuration area to the value of the string passed as a parameter.  ConfHelper will automatically rotate the file, saving backups of it.

- setotherarea\_DANGEROUS(@otherarea)

  Sets the non-confarea portion of the file to the value specified. NOTE: THIS FUNCTION IS DANGEROUS AND SHOULD NOT BE USED UNLESS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY!  The configuration file is NOT rotated when this call is used.

## AUTHOR

John Goerzen \<jgoerzen@progenylinux.com\> of Progeny Linux Systems http://www.progeny.com.

## COPYRIGHT

Copyright (C) 2000 Progeny Linux Systems, Inc. Written by John Goerzen \<jgoerzen@progenylinux.com\>

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307  USA

## SEE ALSO

[*debconf*(1)](/debconf/1.md), [*perl*(1)](/perl/1.md).