# ini

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: '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, \[options])

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.

The `options` object may contain the following:

* `section` A string which will be the first `section` in the encoded ini data. Defaults to none.
* `whitespace` Boolean to specify whether to put whitespace around the `=` character. By default, whitespace is omitted, to be friendly to some persnickety old parsers that don't tolerate it well. But some find that it's more human-readable and pretty with the whitespace.

For backwards compatibility reasons, if a `string` options is passed in, then it is assumed to be the `section` value.

#### stringify(object, \[options])

Alias for `encode(object, [options])`

#### 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`