+
+# write out a file in the format required for reading
+# in via readfilestr, it expects the same arguments
+# and a reference to an object
+sub writefilestr
+{
+ my $dir = shift;
+ my $file = shift;
+ my $suffix = shift;
+ my $obj = shift;
+ my $fn;
+ my $f;
+
+ confess('no object to write in writefilestr') unless $obj;
+ confess('object not a reference in writefilestr') unless ref $obj;
+
+ if ($suffix) {
+ $f = uc $file;
+ $fn = "$dir/$f.$suffix";
+ unless (-e $fn) {
+ $f = lc $file;
+ $fn = "$dir/$file.$suffix";
+ }
+ } elsif ($file) {
+ $f = uc $file;
+ $fn = "$dir/$file";
+ unless (-e $fn) {
+ $f = lc $file;
+ $fn = "$dir/$file";
+ }
+ } else {
+ $fn = $dir;
+ }
+
+ my $fh = new IO::File ">$fn";
+ if ($fh) {
+ my $dd = new Data::Dumper([ $obj ]);
+ $dd->Indent(1);
+ $dd->Terse(1);
+ $dd->Quotekeys(0);
+ # $fh->print(@_) if @_ > 0; # any header comments, lines etc
+ $fh->print($dd->Dumpxs);
+ $fh->close;
+ }
+}
+
+sub filecopy
+{
+ copy(@_) or return $!;
+}
+
+# remove leading and trailing spaces from an input string
+sub unpad
+{
+ my $s = shift;
+ $s =~ s/\s+$//;
+ $s =~ s/^\s+//;
+ return $s;
+}
+
+# check that a field only has callsign characters in it
+sub is_callsign
+{
+ return $_[0] =~ /^(?:[A-Z]{1,2}\d+|\d[A-Z]{1,2}\d+)[A-Z]{1,3}(?:-\d{1,2}|\/(?:[A-Z]{1,2}\d{0,2}|\d[A-Z]\d{0,2}))?$/;
+}
+
+# check that a PC protocol field is valid text
+sub is_pctext
+{
+ return undef unless length $_[0];
+ return undef if $_[0] =~ /[\x00-\x08\x0a-\x1f\x80-\x9f]/;
+ return 1;
+}
+
+# check that a PC prot flag is fairly valid (doesn't check the difference between 1/0 and */-)
+sub is_pcflag
+{
+ return $_[0] =~ /^[01\*\-]+$/;
+}
+
+# check that a thing is a frequency
+sub is_freq
+{
+ return $_[0] =~ /^\d+(?:\.\d+)?$/;
+}
+
+# check that a thing is just digits
+sub is_digits
+{
+ return $_[0] =~ /^[\d]+$/;
+}
+
+# does it look like a qra locator?
+sub is_qra
+{
+ return $_[0] =~ /^[A-Ra-r][A-Ra-r]\d\d[A-Xa-x][A-Xa-x]$/;
+}
+
+# does it look like a valid lat/long
+sub is_latlong
+{
+ return $_[0] =~ /^\s*\d{1,2}\s+\d{1,2}\s*[NnSs]\s+1?\d{1,2}\s+\d{1,2}\s*[EeWw]\s*$/;
+}
+
+# insert an item into a list if it isn't already there returns 1 if there 0 if not
+sub insertitem
+{
+ my $list = shift;
+ my $item = shift;
+
+ return 1 if grep {$_ eq $item } @$list;
+ push @$list, $item;
+ return 0;
+}
+
+# delete an item from a list if it is there returns no deleted
+sub deleteitem
+{
+ my $list = shift;
+ my $item = shift;
+ my $n = @$list;
+
+ @$list = grep {$_ ne $item } @$list;
+ return $n - @$list;
+}