= IniParse {
}[http://travis-ci.org/antw/iniparse]
IniParse is a pure Ruby library for parsing
INI[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/INI_file] configuration and data
files.
This rubygem is in ongoing development and - specs aside - hasn't yet been
properly tested in a production environment. If you think you've found a bug,
or you feed it an INI file which doesn't work as you'd expected, please mail
me at +anthony at ninecraft dot com+, ideally with a copy of the INI file in
question.
IniParse tests pass on Ruby 1.8.6p399, 1.8.7p249, and 1.9.1p378, JRuby 1.4.0 and Rubinius 1.0.0 RC2.
=== Main features
* Support for duplicate options. While not common, some INI files
contain an option more than once. IniParse does not overwrite previous
options, but allows you to access all of the duplicate values.
* Preservation of white space and blank lines. When writing back to
your INI file, line indents, white space and comments (and their indents)
are preserved. Only trailing white space (which has no significance in INI
files) will be removed.
* Preservation of section and option ordering. Sections and options
are kept in the same order they are in the original document ensuring that
nothing gets mangled when writing back to the file.
If you don't need the above mentioned features, you may find the simpler
IniFile gem does all you need.
=== Opening an INI file
Parsing an INI file is fairly simple:
IniParse.parse( File.read('path/to/my/file.ini') ) # => IniParse::Document
IniParse.parse returns an IniParse::Document instance which represents the
passed "INI string". Assuming you know the structure of the document, you can
access the sections in the INI document with IniParse::Document#[]. For
example:
document = IniParse.parse( File.read('path/to/my/file.ini') )
document['a_section']
# => IniParse::Lines::Section
document['a_section']['an_option']
# => "a value"
document['a_section']['another_option']
# => "another value"
In the event that duplicate options were found, an array of the values will
be supplied to you.
document = IniParse.parse <<-EOS
[my_section]
key = value
key = another value
key = a third value
EOS
document['my_section']['key']
# => ['value', 'another value', 'third value']
Options which appear before the first section will be added to a section called
"__anonymous__".
document = IniParse.parse <<-EOS
driver = true
[driver]
key = value
EOS
document['__anonymous__']['driver']
# => true
document['driver']['key']
# => 'value'
=== Updating an INI file
document['a_section']['an_option']
# => "a value"
document['a_section']['an_option'] = 'a new value'
document['a_section']['an_option']
# => "a new value"
=== Creating a new INI file
See IniParse::Generator.