PHP: parse_ini_file

Description

array parse_ini_file ( string filename [, bool process_sections] )

parse_ini_file() loads in the ini file specified in filename, and returns the settings in it in an associative array. By setting the last process_sections parameter to TRUE, you get a multidimensional array, with the section names and settings included. The default for process_sections is FALSE

Notatka: This function has nothing to do with the php.ini file. It is already processed, the time you run your script. This function can be used to read in your own application's configuration files.

Notatka: If a value in the ini file contains any non-alphanumeric characters it needs to be enclosed in double-quotes (").

Notatka: Since PHP 4.2.1 this function is also affected by tryb bezpieczny and open_basedir.

Notatka: As of PHP 5.0 this function also handles new lines in values.

Notatka: There are reserved words which must not be used as keys for ini files. These include: null, yes, no, true, and false.

The structure of the ini file is similar to that of the php.ini's.

Constants may also be parsed in the ini file so if you define a constant as an ini value before running parse_ini_file(), it will be integrated into the results. Only ini values are evaluated. For example:

Przykład 1. Contents of sample.ini

; This is a sample configuration file
; Comments start with ';', as in php.ini

[first_section]
one = 1
five = 5
animal = BIRD

[second_section]
path = /usr/local/bin
URL = "http://www.example.com/~username"

Przykład 2. parse_ini_file() example


<?php



define('BIRD', 'Dodo bird');



// Parse without sections

$ini_array = parse_ini_file("sample.ini");

print_r($ini_array);



// Parse with sections

$ini_array = parse_ini_file("sample.ini", true);

print_r($ini_array);



?>

Would produce:

Array
(
    [one] => 1
    [five] => 5
    [animal] => Dodo bird
    [path] => /usr/local/bin
    [URL] => http://www.example.com/~username
)
Array
(
    [first_section] => Array
        (
            [one] => 1
            [five] => 5
            [animal] = Dodo bird
        )

    [second_section] => Array
        (
            [path] => /usr/local/bin
            [URL] => http://www.example.com/~username
        )

)

Keys and section names consisting from numbers are evaluated as PHP integers thus numbers starting by 0 are evaluated as octals and numbers starting by 0x are evaluated as hexadecimals.

User Contributed Notes


I had a look at the code for function parse_ini_file_quotes_safe( 

and added in the ability to preserve comments.



<?php

// Parse a file into an array following the rules for ini files as follows

//

// Looks for [] characters to mark section headings and = chars to mark the break between the key and its values.

// Also keeps comments delimited by any of the characters in $comments_chars in the array numbered as they are found. 

//

// Note writing back the array will necessarily move the comments to the beginning of the section, 

// even if they are found within

// a section simply because there is no exact place-holder information stored in the array.

// This could of course be a problem. 

// Also the Write array routine will have to be modified 

// to correctly write back comments otherwise they will appear as blank sections called [comment{x}] 



function parse_ini_file_quotes_safe($f)

{

 $newline = "<br>";

 $null = "";

 $r=$null;

 $first_char = "";

 $sec=$null;

 $comment_chars="/*<;#?>";

 $num_comments = "0";

 $header_section = "";



 //Read to end of file with the newlines still attached into $f

 $f=@file($f);

 // Process all lines from 0 to count($f) 

 for ($i=0;$i<@count($f);$i++)

 {

  $newsec=0;

  $w=@trim($f[$i]);

  $first_char = @substr($w,0,1);

  if ($w)

  {

   if ((!$r) or ($sec))

   {

   // Look for [] chars round section headings

   if ((@substr($w,0,1)=="[") and (@substr($w,-1,1))=="]") {$sec=@substr($w,1,@strlen($w)-2);$newsec=1;}

   // Look for comments and number into array

   if ((stristr($comment_chars, $first_char) === FALSE)) {} else {$sec=$w;$k="Comment".$num_comments;$num_comments = $num_comments +1;$v=$w;$newsec=1;$r[$k]=$v;echo "comment".$w.$newline;}

   //

   }

   if (!$newsec)

   {

   //

   // Look for the = char to allow us to split the section into key and value 

   $w=@explode("=",$w);$k=@trim($w[0]);unset($w[0]); $v=@trim(@implode("=",$w));

   // look for the new lines 

   if ((@substr($v,0,1)=="\"") and (@substr($v,-1,1)=="\"")) {$v=@substr($v,1,@strlen($v)-2);}

   if ($sec) {$r[$sec][$k]=$v;} else {$r[$k]=$v;}

   }

  }

 }

 return $r;

}



?>


[A feature request for a third parameter, to turn off the following insecure behaviour has been submitted: http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=34949 - I'm just documenting it here so that people are aware that they need to take the insecurity of the current behaviour into consideration when programming.]



Be warned that, in its current (2-argument) form, this function should be avoided when processing user-provided ini files, as data leakage may occur if the user provides an ini file with unquoted string values.



To avoid this problem, it's vital that if your program stores any sensitive data in constants, that you either pre-scan the ini file for unquoted strings, or that you do not use this function.



A suitable pre-parse parser might be as follows.



This assumes that there are no non-word (a-zA-Z0-9_) characters in your keys, and minimises whitespace.



It tries to convert intelligently, like so:

   value1 = value  ; this is a comment

   value2 = value; with semicolon in

to

   value1 = "value"  ; this is a comment

   value2 = "value; with semicolon in"



<?php

$file = file_get_contents('user_provided.ini');



$file2 = preg_replace('/^

(\s*\w+\s*=\s*)        # Part \1 - the key and initial whitespace.

(                      # Part \2 - the value to be quoted

  (?:(?!\s;)[^"\r\n])  # Anything but \r, ", \s;, \n

         *?            # As little as possible of that, minimise whitespace.

)

(                      # Part \3 - everything after the value

  \s*                  # Optional whitespace.

  (?:\s;.*)?           # Optional comment preceded by a space

)

$/mx', '\1"\2"\3', $file);



file_put_contents('user_provided.ini2', $file2);

?>