% $Id$
%
% Earth System Modeling Framework
% Copyright (c) 2002-2023, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, 
% Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Geophysical Fluid Dynamics 
% Laboratory, University of Michigan, National Centers for Environmental 
% Prediction, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, 
% NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
% Licensed under the University of Illinois-NCSA License.

\label{sec:HConfig}

The ESMF HConfig class implements a hierarchical configuration facility that is
compatible with YAML Ain't Markup Language (YAML\texttrademark). ESMF HConfig
can be understood as a Fortran interface to YAML. However, no claim is made that
{\em all} YAML language features are supported in their entirety.

The purpose of the HConfig class under ESMF is to provide a migration path
toward more standard configuration management for ESMF applications. To this end
ESMF\_HConfig integrates with the traditional ESMF\_Config class. Through this
integration the traditional Config class API offers basic access to YAML
configuration files, in addition to providing backward compatible support of the
traditional config file format. This is discussed in more detail in the Config
class section. For more complete YAML support, applications are encouraged to
migrate to the HConfig API discussed in this section.

