Subject: ANNOUNCE: Config::Access 0.01
From: Tim Potter <[email-masked]>
Date: 23 Sep 1998 00:02:09 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.lang.perl.announce,comp.lang.perl.modules

Announcing Config::Access, a perl module for simple text-file based
access control based on the TCP wrappers access control language.
Available soon from a CPAN near you.

Basically this module is a side-effect of a project I did at work.
Hopefully someone else will find it useful.

Tim.

NAME
       Config::Access - Perform simple access control

SYNOPSIS
           use strict;                  # not optional (-:
           use Config::Access;

DESCRIPTION
       The Config::Access module provides a method of
       authenticating arbitrary client/service pairs in a way
       very similar to that provided by the TCP wrappers by
       Wietse Venema <[email-masked]>.

       This module can be useful for restricting access to
       certain parts of a script to a certain domain.  For
       example, a front end program to some device might deny
       certain users access to certain commands or only allow
       trusted users access to dangerous commands.

       The access control language is very similar to the access
       control language specified in hosts_access(5) for the TCP
       wrappers.  Two configuration files specify access rules.
       A file ending in .allow specifies rules to allow access
       and a file ending in .deny specifies rules to deny access.
       The prefix of these files is specified when a
       Config::Access object is created.

ACCESS CONTROL FILES
       As per the TCP wrappers, a request for authorisation
       consults the .allow and .deny files.  The search stops at
       the first match.

       o Access is granted if a $client/$service matches a rule
            in the .allow file.

       o Access is denied if a $client/$service matches a rule in
            the .deny file.

       o Otherwise, if no match is made access is granted.

ACCESS CONTROL RULES
       Access control rules appear in the configuration files in
       the following format.

           service_list : client_list

       Each item in a list is separated by a comma and optional
       whitespace.  Newlines and lines beginning with a '#'
       character are ignored.  A line may be continued if a
       backslash character is present as the end of the line.

       A service or client may be specified as the string 'ALL'
       which means it will be matched by anything.  An optional
       parameter to the access_query method described below
       allows the caller to determine whether the request was
       granted (or denied) using a rule containing the ALL
       wildcard.

       Config::Access also supports IP address matching of
       clients and services using the network/netmask number
       format.

       The EXCEPT operator present in the TCP wrappers access
       control language is not supported.