ini-parser

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Introduction

Functions for parsing INI-style file natively in bash.

The INI file format supports the following features:

Sections: [section] Properties: name=value Comments: ; comment # comment

Blank lines and trailing writespace are ignored as is whitespace around the '=' - ie.

name = value

is equivalent to

name=value

Whitespace and quotes within a value are preserved (though values don't in general need to be quoted and will not be subject to shell parameter splitting)

Values can be continuted onto subsequent lines if these are prefixed with whitespace - ie.

name=line1 line2

is equivalent to:

name = line1 line2

Properties are stored in the global _CONFIG array as ( k1 v1 k2 v2 ... ) with keys in the format "

The functionality is more or less equivalent to the Python ConfigParser module with the following exceptions

• Properties are allowed outside sections
• Multi-line properties are joined with ' ' rather than '\n' (due to shell quoting issues)

Usage

Given the following ini file (test.ini) -

; A test ini file global = a global value [section1] abc = def ; a comment ghi = jkl [section2] xyz = abc ; extends over two lines def

Parse config file -

$ parseIniFile < test/t2.ini

$ listKeys .global section1.abc section1.ghi section2.xyz

$ listAll .global a global value section1.abc def section1.ghi jkl section2.xyz abc def

$ listSection section1 section1.abc def section1.ghi jkl

$ getProperty global a global value

$ getProperty section2.xyz abc def

$ getPropertyVar XYZ section2.xyz && echo OK OK

$ echo ">${XYZ}<"

abc def<

Commands

parseIniFile < file

Parse ini file (reads from stdin) and saves data to global _CONFIG var

listKeys

List keys present in config file in format "

listAll

List keys and data in format "

listSection

List keys and data for given section (sepcified as $1) in format " "

getProperty [name|section.name]

Print value for given property (sepcified as $1) Properties without a section can be queried directly as "name" (rather than ".name")

Returns 0 (true) if property found otherwise 1 (false)

getPropertyVar [name|section.name]

Save value for given property (sepcified as $2) into shell variable (specified as $1) Properties without a section can be queried directly as "name" (rather than ".name")

Returns 0 (true) if property found otherwise 1 (false)