README.md
1An ini format parser and serializer for node.
2
3Sections are treated as nested objects. Items before the first
4heading are saved on the object directly.
5
6## Usage
7
8Consider an ini-file `config.ini` that looks like this:
9
10 ; this comment is being ignored
11 scope = global
12
13 [database]
14 user = dbuser
15 password = dbpassword
16 database = use_this_database
17
18 [paths.default]
19 datadir = /var/lib/data
20 array[] = first value
21 array[] = second value
22 array[] = third value
23
24You can read, manipulate and write the ini-file like so:
25
26 var fs = require('fs')
27 , ini = require('ini')
28
29 var config = ini.parse(fs.readFileSync('./config.ini', 'utf-8'))
30
31 config.scope = 'local'
32 config.database.database = 'use_another_database'
33 config.paths.default.tmpdir = '/tmp'
34 delete config.paths.default.datadir
35 config.paths.default.array.push('fourth value')
36
37 fs.writeFileSync('./config_modified.ini', ini.stringify(config, { section: 'section' }))
38
39This will result in a file called `config_modified.ini` being written
40to the filesystem with the following content:
41
42 [section]
43 scope=local
44 [section.database]
45 user=dbuser
46 password=dbpassword
47 database=use_another_database
48 [section.paths.default]
49 tmpdir=/tmp
50 array[]=first value
51 array[]=second value
52 array[]=third value
53 array[]=fourth value
54
55
56## API
57
58### decode(inistring)
59
60Decode the ini-style formatted `inistring` into a nested object.
61
62### parse(inistring)
63
64Alias for `decode(inistring)`
65
66### encode(object, [options])
67
68Encode the object `object` into an ini-style formatted string. If the
69optional parameter `section` is given, then all top-level properties
70of the object are put into this section and the `section`-string is
71prepended to all sub-sections, see the usage example above.
72
73The `options` object may contain the following:
74
75* `section` A string which will be the first `section` in the encoded
76 ini data. Defaults to none.
77* `whitespace` Boolean to specify whether to put whitespace around the
78 `=` character. By default, whitespace is omitted, to be friendly to
79 some persnickety old parsers that don't tolerate it well. But some
80 find that it's more human-readable and pretty with the whitespace.
81
82For backwards compatibility reasons, if a `string` options is passed
83in, then it is assumed to be the `section` value.
84
85### stringify(object, [options])
86
87Alias for `encode(object, [options])`
88
89### safe(val)
90
91Escapes the string `val` such that it is safe to be used as a key or
92value in an ini-file. Basically escapes quotes. For example
93
94 ini.safe('"unsafe string"')
95
96would result in
97
98 "\"unsafe string\""
99
100### unsafe(val)
101
102Unescapes the string `val`
103