--- AnyEvent/lib/AnyEvent/Log.pm	2011/08/25 00:08:10	1.28
+++ AnyEvent/lib/AnyEvent/Log.pm	2011/08/25 03:08:48	1.31
@@ -251,7 +251,7 @@
                   $format = $format->() if ref $format;
                   $format = sprintf $format, @args if @args;
                   $format =~ s/\n$//;
-                  $now = AE::now;
+                  $now = now;
                };
 
                # format msg
@@ -1089,20 +1089,44 @@
 
 =back
 
+Any character can be escaped by prefixing it with a C<\> (backslash), as
+usual, so to log to a file containing a comma, colon, backslash and space in the
+filename, you would do this:
+
+   PERL_ANYEVENT_LOG='log=file=/some\ \:file\ with\,\ \\-escapes'
+
+Since whitespace (which includes newlines) is allowed, it is fine to
+specify multiple lines in C<PERL_ANYEVENT_LOG>, e.g.:
+
+   PERL_ANYEVENT_LOG="
+      filter=warn
+      AnyEvent::Debug=+%trace
+      %trace=only,trace,+log
+   " myprog
+
+Also, in the unlikely case when you want to concatenate specifications,
+use whitespace as separator, as C<::> will be interpreted as part of a
+module name, an empty spec with two separators:
+
+   PERL_ANYEVENT_LOG="$PERL_ANYEVENT_LOG MyMod=debug"
+
 =cut
 
 for (my $spec = $ENV{PERL_ANYEVENT_LOG}) {
    my %anon;
 
    my $pkg = sub {
-      $_[0] eq "log" ? $LOG
-      : $_[0] eq "filter" ? $FILTER
-      : $_[0] eq "collect" ? $COLLECT
-      : $_[0] =~ /^%(.+)$/ && $anon{$1} ||= ctx undef
-      : $_[0] =~ /^(.*?)(?:::)?$/ && ctx "$1" # egad :/
+      $_[0] eq "log"              ? $LOG
+      : $_[0] eq "filter"         ? $FILTER
+      : $_[0] eq "collect"        ? $COLLECT
+      : $_[0] =~ /^%(.+)$/        ? ($anon{$1} ||= ctx undef)
+      : $_[0] =~ /^(.*?)(?:::)?$/ ? ctx "$1" # egad :/
+      : die # never reached?
    };
 
-   while (/\G((?:[^:=]+|::|\\.)+)=/gc) {
+   /\G[[:space:]]+/gc; # skip initial whitespace
+
+   while (/\G((?:[^:=[:space:]]+|::|\\.)+)=/gc) {
       my $ctx = $pkg->($1);
       my $level = "level";
 
@@ -1129,9 +1153,11 @@
          /\G,/gc or last;
       }
 
-      /\G[:[:space:]]/gc or last;
+      /\G[:[:space:]]+/gc or last;
    }
 
+   /\G[[:space:]]+/gc; # skip trailing whitespace
+
    if (/\G(.+)/g) {
       die "PERL_ANYEVENT_LOG ($spec): parse error at '$1'\n";
    }