But sometimes file:consult/1 isn’t enaugh, for example if you want to use, expression (like multiply something, or append list to another, or use list comprehension).

This snipet will do this:

eval(Filename) ->
{ok, B} = file:read_file(Filename),
T = binary_to_list(B),
{ok, Tokens, _EndLocation} = erl_scan:string(T),
{ok, [Expression]} = erl_parse:parse_exprs(Tokens),
Bindings = erl_eval:new_bindings(),
{value, Value, _NewBindings} = erl_eval:expr(Expression, Bindings),
{ok, Value}.

Use like eval(”file.cfg”);

example file.cfg:
{hosts,
[ {active, Host, 100} || X <- [a1,a2,a3,a4,a5] ] ++
[ {passive, Host, 200} || X <- [p1, p2, p3, p4] ]
}.
{acl, [ {joe, md5("password') } ]}.

this is just example. You need to consider that users can write any expressions there (like erlang:halt() ).

Awesome! After I read about it more and find some time I’ll update the post to reflect these findings. Thank you very much.

1> Conf = [{appname, "Hello"}, {user,"Ferd"}].
[{appname,"Hello"},{user,"Ferd"}]
2> proplists:get_value(user,Conf).
“Ferd”
3> proplists:get_value(password, Conf, “Default if not found”).
“Default if not found”

Check around the module for some other helpful functions to deal with proplists rather than writing them yourself.