# parcini: a PARser in C for INI files

parcini is a simple parser for INI files somewhat inspired by inih. I made it
because I wanted a somewhat different API from that of inih, and because I was
half-way done when I found about inih.

It was mainly made to serve my needs, so I intend on keeping it super minimal.
Most probably inih or a different library might of more interest/use to you, but
feel free to use my implementation if it fits your use-case as it fits mine.

# License

parcini is released under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License,
version 2.1 only. For more information check the LICENSE file.

# Compiling

Just copy the header `include/parcini.h` and source `src/parcini.c` files to
your project. My main goal is to statically link it, so there's no "support" to
use it as a dynamically linked, but feel free to add it yourself.

A compiler with C99 support and a libc with POSIX.1-2008 are required.

The Makefile provided is just for testing purposes. The test(s) can be run
simply by executing `make` from the command-line.

## Compile-time options

Currently only the following compile-time option is available:

* `PARCINI_COMMENT_CHAR`: should be set to the desired character for start of
  comment. Default is `'#'`.

# INI file format

There is no one standard INI file spec, but this implementation does differ some
from most other implementations out there. 

* It expects only three possible value types: integer, boolean and string. 
	- Integers can be signed and should be withing the range of a long int. They
	  are parsed with `strtol()` so more information can be gathered from the
	  respective manual page.
	- Booleans can be represented as `yes`/`no` or `true`/`false`.
	- Strings should be surrounded by `"` quote characters, and can contain
	  quote characters without escaping, since the last quote character is
	  considered the closing one.
* `=` is the delimiter sign for keys and values, e.g. `key = value`
* Any white space (except newline) surrounding the `=` delimiter is ignored.
* Any white space after the end of a value, or the ] of a section is ignored.
Other characters are not ignored and invalidate the line, unless they are
preceded by the comment character.
* A new line means a new key-value, section, or comment/empty line.
* In the default compilation comments start with `#` and can be on their own
line or at the end of key-value and section lines.

## Example INI file

```ini
int=1995
string = "hello world"
bool = yes

# a comment
[section]
key="value" # another comment
```

# Example program

*TODO*