NAME

Cache::Meh - A cache of indifferent quality

VERSION

version 0.04

SYNOPSIS

    use 5.008;
    use Cache::Meh;
    use Digest::SHA qw(sha1);

    my $cache = Cache::Meh->new(
        filename => 'blort',
        validity => 10, # seconds
        lookup => sub { 
            my $key = shift;
            return sha1($key);
        },
    );

    my $value = $cache->get('some_key');

    if ( sha1('some_key') eq $value ) {
        print "equal\n";
    }
    else {
        print "not equal\n";
    }

OVERVIEW

This module is intended to implement a very simple memory cache where the internal cache state is serialized to disk by Storable so that the cached data persists beyond a single execution environment which makes it suitable for things like cron tasks or CGI handlers and the like.

You may optionally disable disk access by setting the only_memory attribute.

Cache state is stored to disk when a key is set in the cache; keys are only purged from the cache when they expire and there is no lookup function available. These are arguably bad design decisions which may encourage you to seek your caching pleasure elsewhere. On the other hand, pull requests are welcome.

Since this module is intended to be run under Perl 5.8 (but preferably much much more recent Perls) it sadly eschews fancy object systems like Moo. It doesn't require any dependencies beyond core modules. I maybe would have called it Cache::Tiny, but then people might use it.

Besides, this is a cache of indifferent quality. You probably ought to be using something awesome like CHI or Cache::Cache or Cache.

ATTRIBUTES

filename

This is the filename for your Storable file. Required unless you specify only_memory.

The file is written to the "temporary" path as provided by File::Spec tmpdir. On Unix systems, you may influence this directory by setting the TMPDIR environment variable.

only_memory

If this attribute is set, then DO NOT access the disk for reads or writes. Only store cache values in memory. This option is mutually exclusive from the filename attribute above.

validity

Pass an argument to set it; no argument to get its current value.

How long keys should be considered valid in seconds. Arguments must be positive integers.

Each key has an insert time; when the insert time + validity is greater than the current time, the cache refreshes the cached value by executing the lookup function or evicting the key from the cache if no lookup function is provided.

This value defaults to 300 seconds (5 minutes) if not provided.

lookup

Pass an argument to set it; no argument to get its current value.

A coderef which is executed when a key is no longer valid or not found in the cache. The coderef is given the cache key as a parameter.

Optional; no default.

METHODS

new

A constructor. You must provide the filename unless only_memory is set. You may optionally provide a validity time and lookup function. The cache state is loaded (if available) as part of object construction.

get

Takes a key which can be any valid Perl hash key term. Returns the cached value or undef if no lookup function is defined.

set

Takes a key and a value which is unconditionally inserted into the cache. Returns the cache object.

The cache state is serialized during set operations unless only_memory is set.

AUTHOR

Mark Allen <mrallen1@yahoo.com>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This software is copyright (c) 2014 by Mark Allen.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.

cpanm Cache::Meh

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install Cache::Meh