Use an INI file in C on Linux

Question

Is there a standard way of reading a kind of configuration like INI files for Linux using C?

I am working on a Linux based handheld and writing code in C.

Ot

Answer 1

No, there isn't one standard way. I'm sorry, but that is probably the most precise answer :)

You could look at this list of Linux configuration file libraries, though. That might be helpful.

Answer 2

If you need a fast and small code just for reading config files I suggest the inih

It loads the config file content just once, parse the content and calls a callback function for each key/value pair.

Really small. It can be used on embedded systems too.

Answer 3

If you can use the (excellent, in any C-based application) glib, it has a key-value file parser that is suitable for .ini-style files. Of course, you'd also get access to the various (very nice) data structures in glib, "for free".

Answer 4

Here are four options:

1. Iniparser
2. libini
3. sdl-cfg
4. RWini

Answer 5

I hate to suggest something entirely different in suggesting XML, but libexpat is pretty minimal, but does XML.

I came to this conclusion as I had the same question as you did, but then I realized the project already had libexpat linked-in--and I should probably just use that.

Answer 6

Try libconfig:

a simple library for processing structured configuration files, like this one: test.cfg. This file format is more compact and more readable than XML. And unlike XML, it is type-aware, so it is not necessary to do string parsing in application code.

Libconfig is very compact — a fraction of the size of the expat XML parser library. This makes it well-suited for memory-constrained systems like handheld devices.

The library includes bindings for both the C and C++ languages. It works on POSIX-compliant UNIX and UNIX-like systems (GNU/Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris, FreeBSD), Android, and Windows (2000, XP and later)...