+/* Assures the config option is a string, duplicates it and returns the copy in
+ * "ret_string". If necessary "*ret_string" is freed first. Returns zero upon
+ * success. */
+int cf_util_get_string (const oconfig_item_t *ci, char **ret_string);
+
+/* Assures the config option is a string and copies it to the provided buffer.
+ * Assures null-termination. */
+int cf_util_get_string_buffer (const oconfig_item_t *ci, char *buffer,
+ size_t buffer_size);
+
+/* Assures the config option is a number and returns it as an int. */
+int cf_util_get_int (const oconfig_item_t *ci, int *ret_value);
+
+/* Assures the config option is a boolean and assignes it to `ret_bool'.
+ * Otherwise, `ret_bool' is not changed and non-zero is returned. */
+int cf_util_get_boolean (const oconfig_item_t *ci, _Bool *ret_bool);
+
+/* Assures the config option is a boolean and set or unset the given flag in
+ * `ret_value' as appropriate. Returns non-zero on error. */
+int cf_util_get_flag (const oconfig_item_t *ci,
+ unsigned int *ret_value, unsigned int flag);
+
+/* Assures that the config option is a string. The string is then converted to
+ * a port number using `service_name_to_port_number' and returned. Returns the
+ * port number in the range [1-65535] or less than zero upon failure. */
+int cf_util_get_port_number (const oconfig_item_t *ci);
+
+int cf_util_get_cdtime (const oconfig_item_t *ci, cdtime_t *ret_value);
+