Win32API::Registry - Low-level access to Win32 system API calls from WINREG.H

CHANGES

This is version 0.21.  The previous commonly used release was 0.17. 
There have been a lot of changes since then but most are fairly
technical and had subtle or no effect on the module user.  Note that
this version builds without warning under Perl-5.6.

The most important change is that C<regLastError()> should now be used
in place of C<$^E>, especially on Perl-5.6 which makes C<$^E> nearly
useless.  The remaining changes that affect module users are:

    * Added C<regConstant()> with better interface than C<constant()>.
    * For C<BOOL> output, return C<PL_sv_no> [or a non-zero integer].
    * For C<BOOL> input, treat C<"yes"> as true instead of as C<0>.
    * Quietly translate C<[]> to C<0> for all integral arguments.
    * Added C<SE_*> string constants.
    * Disabled AUTOLOAD and the confusing error messages it generates.
    * Changed MIN_GROW_SIZE from 8 to 128 so buffer sizes less needed.
    * Handles are now unsigned to match more accurate constant conversions.

SYNOPSIS

  use Win32API::Registry 0.21 qw( :ALL );

  RegOpenKeyEx( HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, "SYSTEM\\Disk", 0, KEY_READ, $key );
    or  die "Can't open HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SYSTEM\\Disk: ",
	    regLastError(),"\n";
  RegQueryValueEx( $key, "Information", [], $type, $data, [] );
    or  die "Can't read HKEY_L*MACHINE\\SYSTEM\\Disk\\Information: ",
	    regLastError(),"\n";
  [...]
  RegCloseKey( $key )
    or  die "Can't close HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SYSTEM\\Disk: ",
	    regLastError(),"\n";

DESCRIPTION

This provides fairly low-level access to the Win32 System API
calls dealing with the Registry [mostly from WINREG.H].  This
is mostly intended to be used by other modules such as
Win32::TieRegistry [which provides an extremely Perl-friendly
method for using the Registry].

You might prefer to get this module by installing a sufficiently
recent version of the "libwin32" package which includes this and
many other useful modules for use on Win32 systems.

Beyond raw access to the API calls and related constants, this module
handles smart buffer allocation and translation of return codes.

Nearly all calls return a true value for success and a false value
for failure.  After any failure, $^E should automatically be set
to indicate the reason.

This and the other Win32API:: modules are meant to expose the
nearly raw API calls so they can be used from Perl code in any
way they might be used from C code.

AUTHOR

Tye McQueen, tye@metronet.com, http://www.metronet.com/~tye/.

Comments, additions, and bug reports are welcomed.  Please address
technical questions that are not full bug reports to one of the Usenet
newsgroups comp.lang.perl.modules or comp.lang.perl.moderated.