Win32::TieRegistry -- Perl module to easily use a Registry (on Win32 systems so far). by Tye McQueen, tye@metronet.com, see http://www.metronet.com/~tye/. See TieRegistry.pm for full [pod] documentation. If you did not get this module as part of libwin32, you might want to get a recent version of libwin32 from CPAN which should include this module and the Win32API::Registry module that it uses. The Win32::TieRegistry module lets you manipulate the Registry via objects [as in "object oriented"] or via tied hashes. But you will probably mostly use objects which are also references to tied hashes that allow you to mix both access methods. By default, Win32::TieRegistry exports one global variable, $Registry, which is a combination of a Perl object and a reference to a tied hash and represents the virtual "root" of the Registry. Use $Registry as a reference to a tied hash [as in, $Registry->{"KeyName/"}] to open Registry keys and you get more objects/references-to-tied-hashes. Use these or $Registry to make Win32::TieRegistry method calls [as in $key->Information("Class")] and/or as references to tied hashes [as in $key->{"/ValueName"}] to do just about anything with the Registry. Summary of using tied hashes For the impatient, this may be the only documentation you need to read to get started. For best results, always append one delimeter to the end of each Registry key name and prepend one delimeter to the front of each Registry value name. The root keys for use with $Registry are: Classes HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT CUser HKEY_CURRENT_USER LMachine HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Users HKEY_USERS PerfData HKEY_PERFORMANCE_DATA CConfig HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG DynData HKEY_DYN_DATA Note that upper vs. lower case letters matter for these (but not for other subkey names nor value names). Opening keys use Win32::TieRegistry( Delimiter=>"/" ); $swKey= $Registry->{"LMachine/Software/"}; $winKey= $swKey->{"Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/"}; $userKey= $Registry-> {"CUser/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/"}; $remoteKey= $Registry->{"//HostName/LMachine/"}; Reading values $progDir= $winKey->{"/ProgramFilesDir"}; # "C:\\Program Files" $tip21= $winKey->{"Explorer/Tips//21"}; # Text of tip #21. $winKey->ArrayValues(1); ( $devPath, $type )= $winKey->{"/DevicePath"}; # $devPath eq "%SystemRoot%\\inf" # $type eq "REG_EXPAND_SZ" [if you have SetDualVar.pm installed] # $type == REG_EXPAND_SZ [if you did "use Win32API::Registry qw(REG_)"] Setting values $winKey->{"Setup//SourcePath"}= "\\\\SwServer\\SwShare\\Windows"; # Simple. Assumes data type of REG_SZ. $winKey->{"Setup//Installation Sources"}= [ "D:\x00\\\\SwServer\\SwShare\\Windows\0\0", "REG_MULTI_SZ" ]; # "\x00" and "\0" used to mark ends of each string and end of list. $userKey->{"Explorer/Tips//DisplayInitialTipWindow"}= [ pack("L",0), "REG_DWORD" ]; $userKey->{"Explorer/Tips//Next"}= [ pack("S",3), "REG_BINARY" ]; $userKey->{"Explorer/Tips//Show"}= [ pack("L",0), "REG_BINARY" ]; Adding keys $swKey->{"FooCorp/"}= { "FooWriter/" => { "/Version" => "4.032", "Startup/" => { "/Title" => "Foo Writer Deluxe ][", "/WindowSize" => [ pack("LL",$wid,$ht), REG_BINARY ], "/TaskBarIcon" => [ "0x0001", REG_DWORD ], }, "Compatibility/" => { "/AutoConvert" => "Always", "/Default Palette" => "Windows Colors", }, }, "/License", => "0123-9C8EF1-09-FC", }; Listing all subkeys and values @members= keys( %{$swKey} ); @subKeyNames= grep( m#^/#, keys( %{$swKey->{"Classes/batfile/"}} ) ); # @subKeyNames= ( "/", "/EditFlags" ); @valueNames= grep( ! m#^/#, keys( %{$swKey->{"Classes/batfile/"}} ) ); # @valueNames= ( "DefaultIcon/", "shell/", "shellex/" ); Deleting values or keys with no subkeys $oldValue= delete $userKey->{"Explorer/Tips//Next"}; $oldValues= delete $userKey->{"Explorer/Tips/"}; # $oldValues will be reference to hash containing deleted keys values. Closing keys undef $swKey; # Explicit way to close a key. $winKey= "Anything else"; # Implicitly closes a key. exit 0; # Implicitly closes all keys. Installation If you install a version of libwin32 that includes this module, then you are done. In addition, you might want to obtain and install the SetDualVar module to enhance some features of this module. If you don't install libwin32 or can't find a version that includes this module, then you can install this module directly. Win32::TieRegistry installs like any standard Perl module. First, get and install the Win32API::Registry module. For best results, also get and install the SetDualVar module and make sure your Perl distribution included the Win32::WinError module. Then you can use the following commands to install Win32::TieRegistry: unzip Win32-TieRegistry-0.20.zip cd Win32-TieRegistry-0.20 perl Makefile.PL make install [or "nmake install" or "dmake install"] Or, if you don't have a "make" command [usually as part of a C compiler or a binary distribution of Perl], you can get away with simply copying the TieRegistry.pm file into the "Win32" subdirectory of Perl's "lib" directory [or into the "Win32" subdirectory of the directory listed by the command perl -MConfig -e "print $Config{sitelib}" ]. Because Win32::TieRegistry requires Win32API::Registry which uses the standard Perl tools for building extensions and these are not supported with the ActiveState port of Perl, Win32::TieRegistry cannot be used with the ActiveState port of Perl [but can be used with an ActiveState bundle of Perl version 5.004 or beyond]. Sorry. This module was originally called C. Changing code that used C over to C is trivial as the module name should only be mentioned once, in the C line. However, finding all of the places that used C may not be completely trivial so we have included F which you can install to provide backward compatibility. SEE ALSO Win32API::Registry [required] - Provides Reg*(), HKEY_*, KEY_*, REG_*. Win32::WinError [optional] - Defines ERROR_* values. SetDualVar [optional] - For returning values as combo string/integer.