Description

#What is it?

This project is written in Bash.

The main features are around reading sections and values from an INI file.

#Read data

This component offers functions to get

• a list of existing sections
• a list of variables in a given section
• values of a value in a given section

You can get values as

• integer
• string
• arrays as multiline strings

#Verify

You have functions to control what is parsed from a given ini file:

• you can dump the ini file to see the parsed data of your file
• there is optional validation to check sections, keys in sections and their values.

#What we support

There is a wider range of ini files and ini like files. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/INI_file. It is not possible to support all complexity - but a good compromise.

What can be handled:

• Comments:
  • Detected chars: ; and #
  • Must be in a single line
  • Are allowed behind a section after closed bracket, eg. [<name>] # my comment
  • NOT supported: comments behind a value
• Sections:
  • Sections with a string of chars a-z, A-Z, 0-9, special chars, spaces
  • Every section is allowed once
• Keys:
  • Keys with a single word string of non = chars: a-z, A-Z, 0-9, special chars, spaces, :, _, round brackets, …
  • Arrays: you can repeat a key ending with [], eg.
    <name>[] = value1
<name>[] = value2
    The function ini.value will return a text with new lines between the values.
  • on doubled keys the last entry sets the value (except on arrays)
• Values:
  • Values can be unquoted, quoted with 'or quoted with ". The function ini.value will return an unquoted string
  • Key and value must be in a single line; multiline values are not supported

#Examples

These are screenshots of the dump function that show the original and the parsed data:

(1) Sections with spaces and some complex keys

(2) Define arrays