[R] File based configuration

[Thomas Allen]

I'm wanting to run R scripts non-interactively as part of a
"technology independent" framework.
I want control over the behaviour of these processes by specifying
various global variables in a "configuration file" that would be
passed as a command line argument.

I'm wondering if you know of any R support for configuration file
formats. (i.e. any functions that would read a configuration file of
some common format)

For example:
-The .properties configuration format for java seems to be quite
popular, would I have to read it in by writing some kind of java
extension to R?
-An XML configuration format could also be possible, but it's overkill
for my needs.

Any help would be greatly appreciated