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https://github.com/madmurphy/libconfini

Yet another INI parser
https://github.com/madmurphy/libconfini

bare-metal c conf conf-file conf-library config configuration configuration-file configuration-management gnu ini ini-config ini-file ini-library ini-parser ini-reader library parser shared-library unix

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Yet another INI parser

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README 

        
libconfini {#readme}

====================



**libconfini** is the ultimate and most consistent INI file parser library

written in C. Originally designed for parsing configuration files written by

other programs, it focuses on standardization and parsing exactness and is at

ease with almost every type of file containing key/value pairs.



The library is fast and suitable for embedded systems. Its algorithms are

written from scratch and do not depend on any external library, except for the

C standard headers **stdio.h**, **stdlib.h**, **stdbool.h** and **stdint.h**

(and for extreme platforms the code [can be also compiled as “bare metal”][1],

with few or no strings attached to the C Standard Library).



Rather than storing the parsed data, **libconfini** gives the developer the

freedom to choose what to do with them through a custom callback invoked for

each INI node read. The API has been designed to be powerful, flexible and

simple to use.



With **libconfini** you will find in INI files the same serialization power

that you would normally find in other heavily structured formats (such as JSON,

YAML, TOML), but with the advantage of using the most human-friendly

configuration format ever invented (thanks to their informal status, INI files

are indeed more fluid, expressive and human-friendly than formats explicitly

designed with the same purpose, such as YAML and TOML). The library's main goal

is to be uncommonly powerful in the most tedious and error-prone task when

parsing a text file in C: string handling. Thanks to this, the programmer is

left free to organize the content parsed as (s)he pleases, assisted by a rich

set of fine-tuning tools.



Features

--------



* Typed data support (each value can be parsed as a boolean, a number, a

  string, an array)

* Single/double quotes support in _Bash style_ (i.e. quotes can be opened and

  closed multiple times within the same value)

* Multi-line support

* Comment support

* Disabled entry support

* INI sectioning support (single-level sectioning, as in `[foo]`; absolute

  nesting, as in `[foo.bar]`; relative nesting, as in `[.bar]`)

* Automatic sanitization of values, key names and section paths

* Comparison functions designed just for INI source code (capable, for example,

  to recognize the equality between "Hello world" and

  "He"l'lo' world, or between foo bar and

  foo    bar)

* Callback pattern

* Thread-safety (each parsing process is fully reentrant)

* Highly optimized code (single memory allocation for each parsing, heuristic

  programming, optimization flags)

* Function modularity (each public function is independent from all other

  public functions)

* K.I.S.S. (no public functions are automatically invoked during the parsing --

  for example, not even single/double quotes are automatically removed from

  values unless the developer explicitly decides to use the formatting

  functions provided by the API)

* Robust and cross-platform file access (UTF-8 support; protection against null

  byte injection; support of all code representations of new lines -- i.e.

  ubiquitous support of Classic Mac OS' `CR`, Unix' `LF`, Windows' `CR`+`LF`,

  RISC OS Open's `LF`+`CR`)



Sample usage

------------



log.ini:



`````````````````````````````````````` ini

[users]

have_visited = ronnie, lilly82, robrob



[last_update]

date = 12.03.2017

``````````````````````````````````````



example.c:



``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````` c

#include 



static int callback (IniDispatch * disp, void * v_other) {



  #define IS_KEY(SECTION, KEY) \

    (ini_array_match(SECTION, disp->append_to, '.', disp->format) && \

    ini_string_match_ii(KEY, disp->data, disp->format))



  if (disp->type == INI_KEY) {



    if (IS_KEY("users", "have_visited")) {



      /* No need to parse this field as an array right now */

      printf("People who have visited: %s\n", disp->value);



    } else if (IS_KEY("last_update", "date")) {



      printf("Last update: %s\n", disp->value);



    }



  }



  #undef IS_KEY



  return 0;



}



int main () {



  if (load_ini_path("log.ini", INI_DEFAULT_FORMAT, NULL, callback, NULL)) {



    fprintf(stderr, "Sorry, something went wrong :-(\n");

    return 1;



  }



  return 0;



}

```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````



Output:



````````````````````````````````````````````````

People who have visited: ronnie, lilly82, robrob

Last update: 12.03.2017

````````````````````````````````````````````````



If you are using C++, under `examples/cplusplus/map.cpp` you can find a snippet

for storing an INI file into a class that relies on a `std::unordered_map`

object.



For more details, please read the [Library Functions Manual][2] (`man

libconfini`) -- a standalone HTML version is available [here][3] -- and the

manual of the header file (`man confini.h`). The code is available on

[GitHub][4] under [madmurphy/libconfini][5]).



Installation

------------



Despite the small footprint, **libconfini** has been conceived as a shared

library (but it can be used as a static library as well). An automatic list of

the distributions that ship the library already compiled is available [here][6].



If a pre-compiled package for your platform is not available, on most Unix-like

systems it is possible to install **libconfini** using the following common

steps:



`````````````````` sh

./configure

make

make install-strip

``````````````````



If the `strip` utility is not available on your machine, use `make install`

instead (it will produce larger binaries)



For a minimum installation without development files (i.e. static libraries,

headers, documentation, examples, etc.) use `./configure --disable-devel`.



If the `configure` script is missing you need to generate it by running the

`bootstrap` script. By default, `bootstrap` will also run the `configure`

script immediately after having generated it, so you may type the `make`

command directly after `bootstrap`. To list different options use `./bootstrap

--help`.



If you are using **Microsoft Windows**, a batch script for compiling

**libconfini** with [**MinGW**][7] without **Bash** is available

(`mgwmake.bat`). If you are interested in using **GNU Make** for compiling

**libconfini**, you can integrate **MinGW** with [**MSYS**][8], or you can

directly use [**MSYS2**][9] and [its official port][10] of the library.

Alternatively, [an unofficial port][11] of **libconfini** for [**Cygwin**][12]

is available.



For further information, see [INSTALL][13].



Bindings

--------



[Danilo Spinella][14] maintains [a D binding package][15] of **libconfini**.



Free software

-------------



This library is free software. You can redistribute it and/or modify it under

the terms of the GPL license version 3 or any later version. See [COPYING][16]

for details.



  [1]: https://madmurphy.github.io/libconfini/html/baremetal.html

  [2]: https://madmurphy.github.io/libconfini/html/libconfini.html

  [3]: https://madmurphy.github.io/libconfini/manual.html

  [4]: https://github.com/

  [5]: https://github.com/madmurphy/libconfini

  [6]: https://repology.org/project/libconfini/versions

  [7]: http://www.mingw.org/

  [8]: http://www.mingw.org/wiki/MSYS

  [9]: https://www.msys2.org/

  [10]: https://packages.msys2.org/base/mingw-w64-libconfini

  [11]: https://github.com/fd00/yacp/tree/master/libconfini

  [12]: https://www.cygwin.com/

  [13]: https://madmurphy.github.io/libconfini/html/install.html

  [14]: https://danyspin97.org/

  [15]: https://github.com/DanySpin97/libconfini-d

  [16]: https://github.com/madmurphy/libconfini/blob/master/COPYING