Provided by: libmail-bulkmail-perl_3.12-7_all bug

NAME

       Mail::Bulkmail::Object - used to create subclasses for Mail::Bulkmail.

AUTHOR

       Jim Thomason, jim@jimandkoka.com

DESCRIPTION

       Older versions of this code used to be contained within the Mail::Bulkmail package itself, but since 3.00
       now has all of the code compartmentalized, I couldn't leave this in there. Well, technically I *could*,
       but I didn't like that.  It's wasteful to make Mail::Bulkmail::Server a subclass of Mail::Bulkmail, for
       instance, since they don't share any methods, attributes, whatever. Well, none beyond the standard object
       methods that I like to use. Hence this module was born.

       Of course, you don't have to use this to create subclasses, but you'll run the risk of making something
       with an inconsistent interface vs. the rest of the system. That'll confuse people and make them unhappy.
       So I recommend subclassing off of here to be consistent. Of course, you may not like these objects, but
       they do work well and are consistent. Consistency is very important in interface design, IMHO.

SET-UP

       You'll need to specify your conf files. There is the @conf_files array, toss in as many conf files as
       you'd like

        my @conf_files = qw(
               /etc/mail.bulkmail.cfg
               /etc/mail.bulkmail.cf2
        );

       It'll just silently ignore any conf files that aren't present, so don't expect any errors. That's to
       allow you to place multiple conf files in for use on multiple servers and then not worry about them.

       Multiple conf files are in significance order. So if mail.bulkmail.cfg and mail.bulkmail.cf2 both define
       a value for 'foo', then the one in mail.bulkmail.cfg is used. And so on, conf files listed earlier are
       more important.  There is no way for a program to later look at a less significant conf value.

METHODS

       conf_files conf_files returns your conf_files array.

                   my @conf_files = $class->conf_files();

                  You can also programmatically add a new conf_file this way.

                   $class->conf_files('/path/to/new/conf.file', '/path/to/other/conf.file');      #, etc

                  However, it'd be better to specify your conf file at use time.

                   use Mail::Bulkmail::Object 3.00 "/path/to/conf.file";

                  This also (naturally) works in all subclasses.

                   use Mail::Bulkmail 3.00 "/path/to/conf.file";
                   use Mail::Bulkmail::Dynamic 3.00 "/path/to/conf/file";

                  and so on.

                  Note  that  adding  on  via  ->conf_files  or importing puts onto the FRONT of the @conf_files
                  array, i.e., those conf files are more significant.

                  So,

                   @conf_files = qw(/path/to/file /path/to/file2);

                   use Mail::Bulkmail::Object 3.00 "/path/to/file3" "/path/to/file4";

                   Mail::Bulkmail::Object->conf_files("/path/to/file5", "/path/to/file6");

                   print Mail::Bulkmail::Object->conf_files;
                          #prints out /path/to/file5 /path/to/file6 /path/to/file3 /path/to/file4 /path/to/file path/to/file2

                  Note that you don't *need* conf files, you can still specify all information  at  construction
                  time, or via mutators, or whatever. But a conf file can make your life a lot easier.

       add_attr   add_attr adds object attributes to the class.

                  Okay,  now  we're  going to get into some philosophy. First of all, let me state that I *love*
                  Perl's OO implementation.  I usually get smacked upside the head when I say that, but  I  find
                  it  really easy to use, work with, manipulate, and so on. And there are things that you can do
                  in Perl's OO that you can't in Java or C++ or the like. Perl, for example, can have  *totally*
                  private  values  that are completely inaccessible (lexicals, natch). private vars in the other
                  languages can be redefined or tweaked or subclassed or otherwise gotten around in  some  form.
                  Not Perl.

                  And  I obviously just adore Perl anyway. I get funny looks when I tell people that I like perl
                  so much because it works the way I think. That bothers people for some reason.

                  Anyway, as much as I like how it works, I don't like  the  fact  that  there's  no  consistent
                  object  type.  An object is, of course, a blessed ((thingie)) (scalar, array, code, hash, etc)
                  reference. And there are merits to using any of those things, depending  upon  the  situation.
                  Hashes are easy to work with and most similar to traditional objects.

                   $object->{$attribute} = $value;

                  And  whatnot. Arrays are much faster (typically 33% in tests I've done), but they suck to work
                  with.

                   $object->[15] = $value;        #the hell is '15'?

                   (
                    by the way, you can make this easier with variables defined to return the value, i.e.
                    $object->[$attribute] = $value;       #assuming $attribute == 15
                   )

                  Scalars are speciality and coderefs are left to the magicians. Don't get me wrong, coderefs as
                  objects are nifty, but they can be tricky to work with.

                  So, I wanted a consistent interface. I'm not going to claim credit  for  this  idea,  since  I
                  think  I originally read it in Object Oriented Programming in Perl (Damien's book). In fact, I
                  think the error reporting method I use was also originally detailed in there. Anyway, I  liked
                  it a lot and decided I'd implement my own version of it.

                  Basically, attributes are accessed and mutated via methods.

                   $object->attribute($value);

                  For  all  attributes.  This way, the internal object can be whatever you'd like. I used to use
                  mainly arrays for the speed boost, but lately I use hashes  a  lot  because  of  the  ease  of
                  dumping and reading the structure for debugging purposes.  But, with this consistent interface
                  of  using  methods  to  wrapper  the attributes, I can change the implementation of the object
                  (scalar, array, hash, code, whatever) up in this module and *nothing* else needs to change.

                  Say you implemented a giant system in OO perl. And you chose hashrefs as  your  "object".  But
                  then  you needed a big speed boost later, which you could easily get by going to arrays. You'd
                  have  to  go  through  your  code  and  change  all  instances  of  $object->{$attribute}   to
                  $object->[15] or whatever. That's an awful lot of work.

                  With  everything wrappered up this way, changes can be made in the super object class and then
                  automagically populate out everywhere with no code changes. Spiffy stuff.

                  There are some disadvantages, there is a little more overhead for doing the additional  method
                  call, but it's usually negligible. And you can't do nice things like:

                   $object->{$attribute}++;
                   you'd have to do
                   $object->attribute($object->attribute + 1);

                  Which is annoying. But I think it's offset by the consistent interface regardless of what your
                  underlying object is.

                  Enough with the philosophy, though. You need to know how this works.

                  It's easy enough:

                   package Some::Class;

                   Some::Class->add_attr('foo');

                  Now  your  Some::Class objects have a foo attribute, which can be accessed as above. If called
                  with a value, it's the mutator which sets the attribute to the new value and returns  the  new
                  value. If called without one, it's the accessor which returns the value.

                   my $obj = Some::Class->new();
                   $obj->foo('bar');
                   print $obj->foo();                     #prints bar
                   print $obj->foo('boo');        #prints boo
                   print $obj->foo();                     #prints boo

                  add_attr calls should only be in your module. Never in your program. And they really should be
                  defined up at the top.

                  Internally,  an  add_attr  call  creates  a  function  inside  your package of the name of the
                  attribute which reflects through to the internal _accessor method which handles  the  mutating
                  and accessing.

                  There is another syntax for add_attr, to define a different internal accessor:

                   Some::Class->add_attr(['foo', 'other_accessor']);

                  This  creates  method  called  'foo'  which  talks  to  a  separate  accessor,  in  this  case
                  "other_accessor" instead of going to _accessor. This  is  useful  if  you  want  to  create  a
                  validating method on your attribute.

                  Additionally, it creates a normal method going to _accessor called '_foo', which is assumed to
                  be  the  internal  attribute  slot  your  other  accessor  with  use. In generall, for a given
                  "attribute", "_attribute" will be created for internal use.

                  "other_accessor" will get the object as the first arg (as always) and the name of the internal
                  method as the second.

                  Example:

                   Some::Class->add_attr(['foo', 'other_accessor']);

                   $obj->foo('bee');

                   sub other_accessor {
                          my $self        = shift;
                          my $method      = shift;        # "_foo", in this example

                          if (@_){
                                  my $val = shift;        # "bee", in this example
                                  if ($val == 7){
                                          return $self->$method($val);
                                  }
                                  else {
                                          return $self->error("Cannot store value...foo must be 7!");
                                  };
                          }
                          else {
                                  return $self->$method();
                          };
                   };

                  And, finally, you can also pass in additional arguments as static args if desired.

                   Some::Class->add_attr(['foo', 'other_accessor'], 'bar');

                   $obj->foo('bee');

                   sub other_accessor {
                          my $self        = shift;
                          my $method      = shift;
                          my $static      = shift;        #'bar' in our example

                          my $value       = shift;        #'bee' in our example
                          .
                          .
                          .
                   };

                   All easy enough. Refer to any subclasses of this class for further examples.

       add_class_attr
                  This is similar  to  add_attr,  but  instead  of  adding  object  attributes,  it  adds  class
                  attributes. You cannot have object and class attributes with the same name. This is by design.
                  (error is a special case)

                   Some::Class->add_attr('foo');                  #object attribute foo
                   Some::Class->add_class_attr('bar'):    #class attribute bar

                   print $obj->foo();
                   print Some::Class->bar();

                  Behaves  the  same  as  an object method added with add_attr, mutating with a value, accessing
                  without one. Note that add_class_attr does not have the  capability  for  additional  internal
                  methods  or  static  values.  If  you want those on a class method, you'll have to wrapper the
                  class attribute yourself on a per case basis.

                  Note that you can access class attributes via an object (as expected), but it's  frowned  upon
                  since it may be confusing.

                  class  attributes are automatically initialized to any values in the conf file upon adding, if
                  present.

       add_tricke_class_attr
                  It's things like this why I really love Perl.

                  add_trickle_class_attr behaves the same as add_class_attr  with  the  addition  that  it  will
                  trickle the attribute down into any class as it is called. This is useful for subclasses.

                  Watch:

                   package SuperClass;

                   SuperClass->add_class_attr('foo');
                   SuperClass->foo('bar');

                   package SubClass;
                   @ISA = qw(SuperClass);

                   print SubClass->foo();                 #prints bar
                   print SuperClass->foo();               #prints bar

                   print SuperClass->foo('baz');  #prints baz
                   print SubClass->foo();                 #prints baz

                   print SubClass->foo('dee');    #prints dee
                   print SuperClass->foo();               #prints dee

                  See? The attribute is still stored in the super class, so changing it in a subclass changes it
                  in the super class as well.  Usually, this behavior is fine, but sometimes you don't want that
                  to  happen.  That's  where add_trickle_class_attr comes in. Its first call will snag the value
                  from the SuperClass, but then it will have its own attribute that's separate.

                  Again, watch:

                   package SuperClass;

                   SuperClass->add_trickle_class_attr('foo');
                   SuperClass->foo('bar');

                   package SubClass;
                   @ISA = qw(SuperClass);

                   print SubClass->foo();                 #prints bar
                   print SuperClass->foo();               #prints bar

                   print SuperClass->foo('baz');  #prints baz
                   print SubClass->foo();                 #prints bar

                   print SubClass->foo('dee');    #prints dee
                   print SuperClass->foo();               #prints baz

                  This is useful if you have an attribute that should be unique to a class and  all  subclasses.
                  These are equivalent:

                   package SuperClass;
                   SuperClass->add_class_attr('foo');

                   package SubClass
                   SubClass->add_class_attr('foo');

                   and

                   package SuperClass;
                   SuperClass->add_trickle_class_attr('foo');

                  You'll  usually  just use add_class_attr. Only use trickle_class_attr if you know you need to,
                  since you rarely would.  There is  a  *slight*  bit  of  additional  processing  required  for
                  trickled accessors.

                  trickled  class  attributes  are automatically initialized to any values in the conf file upon
                  adding, if present.

       error and errcode
                  error rocks. All error reporting is set and relayed through error. It's a  standard  accessor,
                  and  an  *almost*  standard mutator. The difference is that when used as a mutator, it returns
                  undef (or an empty list) instead of the value mutated to.

                  If a method fails, it is expected to return undef (or an empty list) and set error.

                  example:

                   sub someMethod {
                          my $self = shift;
                          my $value = shift;

                          if ($value > 10){
                                  return 1;               #success
                          }
                          else {
                                  return $self->error("Values must be greater than 10");
                          };
                   };

                   $object->someMethod(15) || die $object->error; #succeeds
                   $object->someMethod(5)  || die $object->error; #dies with an error..."Values must be greater than 10"

                  Be warned if your method can return '0', this is a valid successful return and shouldn't  give
                  an error.  But most of the time, you're fine with "true is success, false is failure"

                  As  you  can  see  in  the  example, we mutate the error attribute to the value passed, but it
                  returns undef.

                  However, error messages can change and can be difficult to parse. So we  also  have  an  error
                  code,  accessed  by  errcode.  This  is expected to be consistent and machine parseable. It is
                  mutated by the second argument to ->error

                  example:

                   sub someMethod {
                          my $self = shift;
                          my $value = shift;

                          if ($value > 10){
                                  return 1;               #success
                          }
                          else {
                                  return $self->error("Values must be greater than 10", "ERR77");
                          };
                   };

                   $object->someMethod(15) || die $object->error;         #succeeds
                   $object->someMethod(5)  || die $object->errcode;       #dies with an error code ... "ERR77"

                  If your code is looking for an error, read the errcode. if a human is looking at  it,  display
                  the error.  Easy as pie.

                  Both classes and objects have error methods.

                   my $obj = Some::Class->new() || die Some::Class->error();
                   $obj->foo() || die $obj->error();

                  Note  that  error  is  a special method, and not just a normal accessor or class attribute. As
                  such:

                   my $obj = Some::Class->new();
                   Some::Class->error('foo');
                   print $obj->error();                   #prints undef
                   print Some::Class->error();    #prints foo

                  i.e., you will not get a class error message by calling ->error on an object.

                  There is also an optional third paramenter..."not logged", which sounds horribly ugly, I know.
                  But it is a bit of an after-market hack, so it's to be expected. The third argument does  what
                  you'd think, it prevents the error message from being logged.

                   $self->error("This is an error message", "code", "not logged");

                  Any  true  value  may be passed for the 3rd argument, but something that makes it obvious what
                  it's doing is recommended, hence my use of 'not  logged'.  This  is  useful  for  bubbling  up
                  errors.

                   $class->error($self->error, $self->errcode, 'not logged');

                  The  reason  is that the error was already logged when it was stored in $self. So you'd end up
                  logging it twice in your error file, which is very confusing. So it's recommended to  use  the
                  three argument form for errors that are bubbling up, but not elsewhere.

                  As  of 3.06, if an error is returned in a list context, an empty list will be returned instead
                  of undef. undef is still returned in a scalar context.

       errcode    errcode is an accessor ONLY. You can only mutate the errcode via error, see above.

                   print $obj->errcode;

                  Both objects and classes have errcode methods.

                   my $obj = Some::Class->new() || die Some::Class->errcode();
                   $obj->foo() || die $obj->errcode();

                  Where possible, the pod will note errors that a method is known to be able to  return.  Please
                  note  that  this will never be an all inclusive list of all error codes that may possibly ever
                  be returned by this method. Only error codes generated by a particular method will be listed.

       errstring  errstring is just a quick alias for:

                   $bulk->error . ": " . $bulk->errcode;

                  Nothing more.

       errvals    similar to errstring, but returns the error and  errcode  in  an  array.  This  is  great  for
                  bubbling up error messages.

                   $attribute = $obj->foo() || return $self->error($obj->errvals);

       read_conf_file
                  read_conf_file will read in the conf files specified in the @conf_files array up at the top.

                  You can also pass in a list of conf files to read, in most to least significant order, same as
                  the @conf_files array.

                   my $conf = Mail::Bulkmail::Object->read_conf_file();
                   or
                   my $conf = Mail::Bulkmail::Object->read_conf_file('/other/conf.file');

                  If you pass in a list of conf files, then the internal @conf_files array is bypassed.

                  $conf is a hashref of hashrefs. the main keys are the package names, the values are the hashes
                  of the values for that object.

                  Example:

                   #conf file
                   define package Mail::Bulkmail

                   use_envelope = 1
                   Trusting @= duplicates

                   define package Mail::Bulkmail::Server

                   Smtp = your.smtp.com
                   Port = 25

                   $conf = {
                          'Mail::Bulkmail' => {
                                  'use_envelope' => 1,
                                  'Trusting' => ['duplicates']
                          },
                          'Mail::Bulkmail::Server' => {
                                  'Smtp' => 'your.smtp.com',
                                  'Port' => 25
                          }
                   };

                  read_conf_file is called at object initialization. Any defaults for your object are read in at
                  this  time.  You'll rarely need to read the conf file yourself, since at object creation it is
                  read and parsed and the values passed on.

                  Be sure to read up on the conf file structure, below

                  The conf file is only re-read if it has been modified since the last time it was read.

                  this method is known to be able to return MBO002 - Invalid conf file

       gen_handle returns a filehandle in a different package. Useful for when you need to open filehandles  and
                  pass 'em around.

                   my $handle = Mail::Bulkmail->gen_handle();
                   open ($handle, "/path/to/my/list");

                   my $bulk = Mail::Bulkmail->new(
                          'LIST' => $handle
                   );

                  You  never  need  to  use  gen_handle  if you don't want to. It's used extensively internally,
                  though.

       new        Finally! The constructor. It's very easy, for a minimalist object, do this:

                   my $obj = Class->new() || die Class->error();

                  Ta da! You have an object. Any attributes specified in the conf file will be loaded into  your
                  object. So if your conf file defines 'foo' as 'bar', then $obj->foo will now equal 'bar'.

                  If you'd like, you can also pass in method/value pairs to the constructor.

                   my $obj = Class->new(
                          'attribute' => '17',
                          'foo'           => 'baz',
                          'method'        => '88'
                   ) || die Class->error();

                  This is (roughly) the same as:

                   my $obj = Class->new() || die Class->error();

                   $obj->attribute(17) || die $obj->error();
                   $obj->foo('baz') || die $obj->error();
                   $obj->method(88) || die $obj->error();

                  Any  accessors  or methods you'd like may be passed to the constructor. Any unknown pairs will
                  be silently ignored.  If you pass a method/value pair to the constructor, it will override any
                  equivalent method/value pair in the conf file.

                  Additionally, if you need to set up values in your object, this is the place to  do  it.  Note
                  that  setting  default  values  should  probably  be done in the conf file, but if you need to
                  populate a data structure into a method, do it here.

                   package SubClass;
                   @ISA = qw(SuperClass);

                   sub new {
                          return shift->new(
                                  'servers'               => [],
                                  'connections'   => {},
                                  @_
                          );
                   };

                  This will cause your SubClass to use the normal constructor, but get  default  values  of  the
                  empty data structures specified.

       init       The  object  initializer.  Arguably more important than the constructor, but not something you
                  need to worry about.  The constructor calls it internally, and you really shouldn't  touch  it
                  or override it. But I wanted it here so you know what it does.

                  Simply,  it  iterates  through  the conf file and mutates any of your object attributes to the
                  value specified in the conf file. It then iterates through the hash you passed to ->new()  and
                  does the same thing, overriding any conf values, if necessary.

                  init  is  smart  enough  to  use all super class values defined in the conf file, in hierarchy
                  order. So if your conf file contains:

                   define package SuperClass

                   foo = 'bar'

                  And you're creating a new SubClass object, then it will get the default of foo = 'bar'  as  in
                  the  conf  file, despite the fact that it was not defined for your own package. Naturally, the
                  more significant definition is used.

                   define package SuperClass

                   foo = 'bar'

                   define package SubClass

                   foo = 'baz'

                  SuperClass objects will default foo to 'bar', SubClass objects will default foo to 'baz'

                  this method is known to be able to return

                   MBO003 - could not initialize value to conf value
                   MBO004 - could not initialize value to constructor value
                   MBO006 - odd number of elements in hash assignment

       isa_path   This is mainly used by the conf reader, but I wanted to make it publicly accessible.  Given  a
                  class,  it  will  return  an  arrayref  containing  all  of the superclasses of that class, in
                  inheritance order.

                  Note that once a path is looked up for a class, it is cached. So  if  you  dynamically  change
                  @ISA,  it  won't be reflected in the return of isa_path.  Obviously, dynamically changing @ISA
                  is frowned upon as a result.

       getNextLine
                  getNextLine is called on either a filehandleref, an arrayref, or a coderef

                   $obj->getNextLine(\*FOO);

                  will return the next line off of FOO;

                   $obj->getNextLine(\@foo);

                  will shift the next line off of @foo and return it.

                   $obj->getNextLine(\&foo);

                  will call foo($obj) and return whatever the function returns.

                  Note that your bulkmail object is the first argument passed to your function. It's not  called
                  as a method, but the object is still the first argument passed.

                  This is mainly used with attribues going through _file_accessor.

                   package SomeClass;

                   SomeClass->add_attr(['FOO', '_file_accessor'], "<");
                   my $obj = SomeClass->new(
                          FOO => \&foo
                   ) || die SomeClass->error();

                   my $val = $obj->getNextLine($obj->FOO);

       logToFile  logToFile is the opposite of getNextLine, it writes out a value instead of reading it.

                  logToFile is called on either a filehandleref, an arrayref, or a coderef

                   $obj->logToFile(\*FOO, "bar");

                  will append a new line to FOO, "bar"

                   $obj->logToFile(\@foo, "bar");

                  will push the value "bar" onto the end of @foo

                   $obj->logToFile(\&foo, "bar");

                  will call foo($obj, "bar")

                  Note  that your bulkmail object is the first argument passed to your function. It's not called
                  as a method, but the object is still the first argument passed.

                  This is mainly used with attribues going through _file_accessor.

                   package SomeClass;

                   SomeClass->add_attr(['FOO', '_file_accessor'], ">>");
                   my $obj = SomeClass->new(
                          FOO => \&foo
                   ) || die SomeClass->error();

                   my $val = $obj->logToFile($obj->FOO, "valid address);

                  Internally, logToFile calls convert_to_scalar on the value it is called with.

                  This method is known to be able to return:

                   MBO005 - cannot log to file

       convert_to_scalar
                  called by logToFile. used to convert the value passed to a scalar.

                  Mail::Bulkmail::Object's  convert_to_scalar  method  will  only  handle   scalars,   it   will
                  dereference  scalarrefs, or return scalar values. This method will also strip out any carriage
                  returns or newlines within the scalar before  returning  it.  If  passed  by  reference,  your
                  original variable will not be modified.

                  This is useful to subclass if you ever want to log values other than simple scalars

       ERRFILE    This is an optional log file to keep track of any errors that occur.

                  ERRFILE may be either a coderef, globref, arrayref, or string literal.

                  If  a  string  literal,  then Mail::Bulkmail::Object will attempt to open that file (in append
                  mode) as your log:

                   $bulk->ERRFILE("/path/to/my/error.file");

                  If a globref, it is assumed to be an open filehandle in append mode:

                   open (E, ">>/path/to/my/error.file");
                   $bulk->ERRFILE(\*E);

                  if a coderef, it is assumed to be a function to call with the address as an argument:

                   sub E { print "ERROR : ", shift, "\n"};        #or whatever your code is
                   $bulk->ERRFILE(\&E);

                  if an arrayref, then bad addresses will be pushed on to the end of it

                   $bulk->ERRFILE(\@errors);

                  Use whichever item is most convenient, and Mail::Bulkmail::Object will take it from there.

                  It is recommended you turn on ERRFILE  in  a  debugging  envrionment,  and  leave  it  off  in
                  production.  You  probably  shouldn't be getting errors in a production environment, but there
                  may be internal errors that you're not even aware of, so you'll end up filling up  that  file.
                  And there's the slight additional overhead.

                  Keep it on in production if you know what you're doing, off otherwise.

CONF FILE specification

       Your  conf  files  are  very  important. You did specify them up in the @conf_files list above, right? Of
       course you did.

       But now you need to know how they look. They're pretty easy.

       Each line of the conf file is a name = value pair.

        ERRFILE = /path/to/err.file

       Do not put the value in quotes, or they will be assigned.

        ERRFILE = /path/to/err.file            #ERRFILE is /path/to/err.file
        ERRFILE = "/path/to/err.file"          #ERRFILE is "/path/to/err.file"

       the conf file is analyzed by the object initializer, and then each value is  passed  to  the  appropriate
       object  upon  object  creation.  So,  in  this  case your ERRFILE class_attribute would be set to ERRFILE
       leading and trailing whitespace is stripped.

        so these are all the same:
        ERRFILE = /path/to/err.file
           ERRFILE        =     /path/to/err.file
                   ERRFILE =        /path/to/err.file
                                                                                               ^^^^^extra spaces

       Your conf file is read by read_conf_file. As you saw  in  the  docs  for  read_conf_file,  it  creates  a
       hashref.  The  top  hashref  has keys of package names, and the conf->{package} hashref is the name value
       pairs. To do that, you'll need to define which package you're looking at.

        define package SomeClass

        define package OtherClass

        ERRFILE = /path/to/err.file

       So ERRFILE is now defined for OtherClass, but not for SomeClass (unless of course, OtherClass is  a  sub-
       class of SomeClass)

       If you do not define a package, then the default package is assumed.

       Multiple entries in a conf file take the last one.

        define package SomeClass

        ERRFILE = /path/to/err.file
        ERRFILE = /path/to/err.other.file

       so   SomeClass->ERRFILE   is   /path/to/err.other.file   There  is  no  way  to  programmatically  access
       /path/to/err.file, the value was destroyed, even though it is still in the conf file.

       There is one magic value token...undef

        ERRFILE = undef

       This will set ERRFILE to the perl value 'undef', as opposed to the literal string "undef"

       Sometimes, you will want to give a conf entry multiple values. Then, use the @= syntax.

        define package SomeClass

        foo = 7
        bar @= 8
        bar @= 9

       SomeClass->foo will be 7, SomeClass->bar will be [8, 9]

       There is no way to assign a value more complex than a scalar or an arrayref.

       Comments are lines that begin with a #

        #enter the SomeClass package
        define package SomeClass

        #connections stores the maximum number of connections we want
        connections = 7

       If you want to get *really* fancy, you can restrict values to the user that is running  the  script.  Use
       the :ID syntax for that.

        define package SomeClass

        #everyone else gets this value
        foo = 11

        #user 87 gets this value
        87:foo = 9

        #user 93 gets this value
        93:foo = 10

       Note that a default value must be listed FIRST, or it will override any user specific values.

SAMPLE CONF FILE

        #this is in the default package
        ERRFILE = /path/to/err.file

        define package Mail::Bulkmail::Server
        #set our Smtp Server
        Smtp   = your.smtp.cpm

        #set our Port
        Port   = 25

        define package JIM::SubClass

        #store the IDs of the server objects we want to use by default

        servers @= 7
        servers @= 19
        servers @= 34

GRAMMAR

       In fact, we'll even get fancy, and specify an ABNF grammar for the conf file.

               CONFFILE = *(LINE "\n")                                 ; a conf file consists of 0 or more lines

               LINE = (
                               DEFINE                  ; definition line
                               / COMMENT               ; comment line
                               / EQUATION              ; equation line
                               / *(WSP)                ; blank line
                       ) "\n"                          ; followed by a newline character

               DEFINE = %b100 %b101 %b102 %b105 %b110 %b101 %b32 %b112 %b97 %b99 %b107 %b97 %b103 %b101 TEXT
                       ; the literal string "define package" in lower case, followed by TEXT

               COMMENT = *(WSP) "#" TEXT

               EQUATION = *(WSP) (VARIABLE / USER_VARIABLE) *(WSP) EQUATION_SYMBOL *(WSP) VALUE *(WSP)

               USER_VARIABLE = USER *(WSP) ":" *(WSP) VARIABLE

               USER = 1*(DIGIT)

               EQUATION_SYMBOL = "=" / "@="

               VALUE = *(TEXT)

               USER_VARIABLE = *(TEXT)

               TEXT = VISIBLE *(VISIBLE / WSP) [VISIBLE]

               VISIBLE = %d33-%d126    ; visible ascii characters

SEE ALSO

       Mail::Bulkmail, Mail::Bulkmail::Server

COPYRIGHT (again)

       Copyright  and  (c)  1999,  2000,  2001, 2002, 2003 James A Thomason III (jim@jimandkoka.com). All rights
       reserved.  Mail::Bulkmail::Object is distributed under the terms of the Perl Artistic License.

CONTACT INFO

       So you don't have to scroll all the way back to  the  top,  I'm  Jim  Thomason  (jim@jimandkoka.com)  and
       feedback  is  appreciated.   Bug  reports/suggestions/questions/etc.  Hell, drop me a line to let me know
       that you're using the module and that it's made your life easier.  :-)

perl v5.36.0                                       2022-10-22                              Bulkmail::Object(3pm)