(based on a script by Jeff Grills)

This is a protect meta-file parser.  The meta-data allows for setting different
kinds of type setups.

The meta-file contains a collection of "blocks", where each block defines a
type of setup.  The block contents are parsed into protect lines based on
what the block header defines as the variables.  A block header is defined as:

{ [ [name]=[value] [; [name]=[value] ... ] ] }
    value value ...

The block header does not need to be all on the same line.  Name-Value pairs
can be separated by lines or a semi-colon (";").

To read the value entries, the parser knows what variables are set in the
block, and the value entries fill in the spaces.  It expects the variables
in this order:
    1. access (list, read, write, super, open, ...)
    2. user type (user or group)
    3. user/group name
    4. path

The corresponding variable names are, for purposes of definition in the blocks:
    1. access
    2. type
    3. name
    4. path

The path does not need to be directly referenced, since the parser will
detect the "//" and "-//" starting text and recognize that as a path.  You
can also specify the IP in the block header (to override the global IP,
see below) with the variable name "ip".

Within the value line, if you specify one more value than is expected, then
that is considered additional text to append to the block's path.  If the
block does not define a path (either in the line or in the header), then this
is an error.

You can define a global IP which will be used unless a block declares the IP
itself.  If you do not define a global IP, the IP used is "*" (any).  The
global IP may be changed at any point in the meta file.  The global IP is
defined in block headers using the variable name "globalip".

IP addresses can define ranges within each dotted octet.  You specify a range
within "[" and "]" markers.  Currently, the following syntax is supported:
    [1,2,3]    use values 1, 2, and 3.
    [1-3]      use the values between 1 and 3, inclusive.
Also, the IP setting can contain multiple IP range settings, separated by a
slash ("/"), amperstand ("&"), or pipe ("|").  You can prefix each IP range
with "proxy-" to indicate that the permission can only be used from a Proxy.



You should run the script like this:

    perl protect.pl sample > protect.txt
    (examine protect.txt here to make sure it's correct)
    p4 protect -i < protect.txt

You can, of course, pipe the output directly into p4 protect like so:

    perl protect.pl sample | p4 protect -i