npm/node_modules/ini/README.md

A package manager for node

An ini format parser and serializer for node.

Sections are treated as nested objects.  Items before the first heading
are saved on the object directly.

## Usage

Consider an ini-file `config.ini` that looks like this:

    ; this comment is being ignored
    scope = global

    [database]
    user = dbuser
    password = dbpassword
    database = use_this_database

    [paths.default]
    datadir = /var/lib/data
    array[] = first value
    array[] = second value
    array[] = third value

You can read, manipulate and write the ini-file like so:

    var fs = require('fs')
      , ini = require('ini')

    var config = ini.parse(fs.readFileSync('./config.ini', 'utf-8'))

    config.scope = 'local'
    config.database.database = 'use_another_database'
    config.paths.default.tmpdir = '/tmp'
    delete config.paths.default.datadir
    config.paths.default.array.push('fourth value')

    fs.writeFileSync('./config_modified.ini', ini.stringify(config, 'section'))

This will result in a file called `config_modified.ini` being written to the filesystem with the following content:

    [section]
    scope = local
    [section.database]
    user = dbuser
    password = dbpassword
    database = use_another_database
    [section.paths.default]
    tmpdir = /tmp
    array[] = first value
    array[] = second value
    array[] = third value
    array[] = fourth value


## API

### decode(inistring)
Decode the ini-style formatted `inistring` into a nested object.

### parse(inistring)
Alias for `decode(inistring)`

### encode(object, [section])
Encode the object `object` into an ini-style formatted string. If the optional parameter `section` is given, then all top-level properties of the object are put into this section and the `section`-string is prepended to all sub-sections, see the usage example above.

### stringify(object, [section])
Alias for `encode(object, [section])`

### safe(val)
Escapes the string `val` such that it is safe to be used as a key or value in an ini-file. Basically escapes quotes. For example

    ini.safe('"unsafe string"')

would result in

    "\"unsafe string\""

### unsafe(val)
Unescapes the string `val`