Lightweight INI style Configuration manager

Supports (currently)

Reading & processing sections from file.
Reading parameter/value pairs from an ini file.
Converting readed values to int/float/string.
Building linked list from parameters.
Multiline values are supported.
Reading comments.
UNICODE/UTF8 support.
Escape sequence support.

Automatically switch between UNIX ('\n') and Windows ('\r\n') line endings. MAC ('\r' only) is not supported currently. Comments can be started with ';' or '#' signs. Multiline values are supported if they are surrounded with Double-Quotation-Mark (") signs. Uses Finite State Machine technique for file processing. Sections, Parameter names can be ASCII alphabetical or numerical characters. Values in alone also ASCII, or between Double-Quotation-Marks(") can be any UNICODE/UTF8 characters.

Maximum line length can be 2^(32/2) characters.

Future Plans

Writing and Rewriting ini files.
Writing support for comments.
Modifying one or more values/parameters/sections in ini files.

sample.ini

;Comments are started with '#' or ';'
# This is also a comment
; Inline comments are allowed.
; EMPTY/BLANK lines are not processed!

;Global variables are allowed
;# Parameters without section are global variables.
global1 = 11
global2 = aaa

; The First character of Section name should be alphanumerical, but
;# another caharacters can be Alphanumerical or dot(.)/underscore(_)/hyphen(-)/space(' ')
[Sections.are_ASCII-alnum characters]

;Parameter values in itself:
;# can be ASCII Alphanumerical only, without any SPACE or TAB character.
;Should start with alphanumerical, and from the second character,
;# can contain (with dot(.) or underscore(_) or hyphen(-))
;If you want to use other characters, you should enclose them between two double-quotation-mark(") sign.
parameter = value-in_itself-are-Alnum.ascii  

;Parameter names are ASCII alphanumerical only, with additional dot(.) or underscore(_) or hyphen(-) or suare-bracket([/]) characters.
;# Square-brackets([]) are allowed for arrays.
parameter_names.also-ASCII = value


[Section 2]
;For other value characters:
;# The Space, or any other special characters are allowed only between two double-quotation-mark sign.

;Escaped characters, (\n, \t, etc.) or multi-byte characters (é, €, カ, ⠋, ঘঃ, 😍) are allowed here.
parameter2 = "I like \t emojis 😍 but, don't like mosquitoes カ ! :)"

; Even! Multiline Parameters are supported:
parameter3 = "With double quotation mark \
I can write multiline values, but I should \
escapse the trailing newline with '\' sign!"


[E X A M P L E S]                     ;inline comments are #OK
abcdefgh                              ;WRONG (eqal sign is needed)
abcdefgh =                            ;CORRECT
abcdefgh ==                           ;WRONG (one equal sign allowed)
abcdefgh = "=="                       ;CORRECT
=abcd                                 ;ERROR
= ;xxxx                               ;also will produce ERROR


param=value                           ;OK (inline comments are ok)
   param    = value                   ;OK (you can use any space between Label, equal, and value

param = value1 value2                 #ERROR
param = value1\ value2                #ERROR
paramß = value1_value2                #ERROR (ascii is needed for labels and sections)

[example ;section]                    ;WRONG
[example \;section]                   ;WRONG

param = "qwerty \"qwerty\" abcdefh"   ;CORRECT (you can use backslash in quoted value)
param = "qwerty\nqwerty"              ;CORRECT ('\''n' -> '\n' will be translated to newline (\r, \t, etc also))
param = "qwerty"qwerty                ;WRONG (mixing are not allowed)
param = "qwerty"                      ;OK
param =  qwerty                       ;OK

array[0123] = "asdasd"                ;OK
array [1234] = dfgdfg                 ;WRONG
array[_] = "jkljkl"                   ;OK
array[abc] = aaaa                     ;OK
array.abc = aaaa                      ;OK
array[abc] = ""                       ;OK

#### qwerty $€ß qwerty ####           ;OK (you can use any character in comments

test = -1.1                           #OK
test2 = "-1.1"                        #OK
test3 = _aaa                          #WRONG
test4 = aaa_                          #OK
test5 = .aaa                          #WRONG
test6 = aaa.                          #OK
test6 = aa.a                          #OK

[server_options]                      ;OK
server_ = ;xxxx                       ;OK
server_ = server.example.com          ;OK
_server_= server.example.com          ;ERROR (labe should start with alpha-numerical character)
ip = 127.0.0.1                        ;OK
ip = "127.0.0.1"                      ;OK
1024 = xxxxx                          ;OK
1024 = 2048                           ;OK (but only syntactically :)

Engine is using a Finite State Machine

(Markdown graph)
(If it does not appear see: engine.html)

graph LR

A[Start] -- \n,\r --> ST[Stop]
A -- comment_sign --> C[Comment]
A -- any_space --> SP[begin_space]
A -- utf8_BOM --> A
A -- square_bracket --> S[section]
A -- alpha_num --> P[label]
A -- other --> E[ERROR]

C -- any_character --> C
C -- \n, \r --> ST

SP -- \n, \r --> ST
SP -- comment_sign --> C
SP -- square_bracket --> S
SP -- alpha_num --> P
SP -- other --> E

S -- square_bracket --> SE[sect_end]
S -- alpha_num --> S
S -- other --> E

SE -- \n, \r --> ST
SE -- any_space --> SE
SE -- comment_sign --> C
SE -- other --> E

P -- equal_sign --> VP[value_pre]
P -- alpha_num --> P
P -- any_space --> P2[label_end]
P -- other --> E

P2 -- equal_sign --> VP
P2 -- any_space --> P2
P2 -- other --> E

VP -- \n, \r --> ST
VP -- comment_sign --> C
VP -- double_quotation_mark --> DQ[quoted_val]
VP -- any_space --> VP
VP -- alpha_num --> VC[value]
VP -- other --> E

VC -- \n, \r --> ST
VC -- comment_sign --> C
VC -- alpha_num --> VC
VC -- any_space --> VV[value_end]
VC -- other --> E

BS -- prev==quoted_val --> DQ

VV -- \n \r --> ST
VV -- comment_sign --> C
VV -- any_space --> VV
VV -- other --> E

DQ -- double_quotation_mark --> VV
DQ -- backslash --> BS
DQ -- \r \n \0 --> E
DQ -- any_other --> DQ

E -- any_other --> ST

ST -- \n \r \0 prev==ERROR --> ST
ST -- other --> E