Laileb.IniFile 2.0.3

💾 IniFile

A lightweight .NET library for reading and writing Windows INI files via the native kernel32 API.

📋 Table of Contents

• 📖 About
• ✨ Features
• 🚀 Getting Started
  • 📌 Prerequisites
  • 📦 Installation
• 💡 Usage
• 📚 API Reference
• 🧪 Running Tests
• 🏗️ Project Structure
• 🤝 Contributing
• 📄 License

📖 About

IniFile is a thin, zero-dependency wrapper around the Windows kernel32.dll Private Profile functions (WritePrivateProfileString, GetPrivateProfileString, GetPrivateProfileInt, etc.).

It lets you read and write classic INI configuration files with a simple, strongly-typed C# API — no parsing logic needed.

⚠️ Note: This library uses Windows-only P/Invoke calls and is not cross-platform.

✨ Features

🚀 Getting Started

📌 Prerequisites

• OS: Windows 10 / 11 or Windows Server 2016+
• SDK: .NET 10 SDK or later
• Language: C# 14

📦 Installation

NuGet Package Manager

dotnet add package Laileb.IniFile

Or via the Package Manager Console in Visual Studio:

Install-Package Laileb.IniFile

Or add directly to your .csproj:

<PackageReference Include="Laileb.IniFile" Version="2.0.3" />

💡 Make sure to enable <AllowUnsafeBlocks>true</AllowUnsafeBlocks> in your .csproj (required by LibraryImport source generation).

💡 Usage

using Ini = IniFile.IniFile;

var ini = new Ini("config.ini");

// Write values
ini.Write("Host", "localhost", "Database");
ini.Write("Port", "5432", "Database");
ini.Write("Debug", "true", "Logging");

// Read values
string host = ini.ReadString("Host", "Database"); // "localhost"
int port = ini.ReadInt("Port", "Database"); // 5432
bool dbg  = ini.ReadBool("Debug", "Logging"); // true
string miss = ini.ReadString("Missing", "Nope", defaultValue: "N/A"); // "N/A"

// Enumerate
string[] sections = ini.GetAllSections(); // ["Database", "Logging"]
string[] entries  = ini.GetAllDataSection("Database"); // ["Host=localhost", "Port=5432"]

// Check & delete
bool exists = ini.KeyExists("Host", "Database"); // true
ini.DeleteKey("Host", "Database");
ini.DeleteSection("Logging");

👉 See the full working demo in examples/IniFile.Example/Program.cs.

📚 API Reference

🔨 Constructor

public IniFile(string filePath)

Creates a new instance bound to the given file path. The path is resolved to an absolute path internally. Throws ArgumentException if the path is null, empty, or whitespace.

🏷️ Properties

⚙️ Methods

✏️ Write

public bool Write(string key, string? value, string? section = null)

Writes a string value. Returns true on success. Creates the file, section, and key if they don't exist.

📖 ReadString

public string ReadString(string key, string? section = null, string defaultValue = "", int bufferSize = 1024)

Returns the value for the key, or defaultValue if not found.

🔢 ReadInt

public int ReadInt(string key, string? section = null, int defaultValue = -1)

Returns the integer value for the key, or defaultValue if not found or not a valid integer.

✅ ReadBool

public bool ReadBool(string key, string? section = null, bool defaultValue = false)

Returns true for "true", "1", "yes"; false for "false", "0", "no" (case-insensitive). Returns defaultValue for anything else.

📂 GetAllSections

public string[] GetAllSections(int bufferSize = 32768)

Returns an array of all section names. Returns an empty array if the file has no sections.

📋 GetAllDataSection

public string[] GetAllDataSection(string section, int bufferSize = 32768)

Returns an array of "key=value" strings for every entry in the given section.

🗑️ DeleteKey

public bool DeleteKey(string key, string? section = null)

Removes a key and its value. Returns true on success.

🧹 DeleteSection

public bool DeleteSection(string? section = null)

Removes an entire section. Returns true on success.

🔍 KeyExists

public bool KeyExists(string key, string? section = null)

Returns true if the key exists in the section (including keys with empty values).

🧪 Running Tests

dotnet test

Tests are located in tests/IniFile.Tests/ and use xUnit. They create temporary INI files in the system temp directory and clean up after each run.

🏗️ Project Structure

IniFile/
├── 📁 src/
│   └── 📁 IniFile/              # Library source
│       ├── 📄 IniFile.cs
│       └── 📄 IniFile.csproj
├── 📁 tests/
│   └── 📁 IniFile.Tests/        # xUnit tests
│       ├── 📄 IniFileTests.cs
│       └── 📄 IniFile.Tests.csproj
├── 📁 examples/
│   └── 📁 IniFile.Example/      # Console demo app
│       ├── 📄 Program.cs
│       └── 📄 IniFile.Example.csproj
├── 📄 Directory.Build.props      # Shared build settings
├── 📄 Directory.Packages.props   # Central package management
├── 📄 IniFile.slnx               # Solution file
└── 📄 README.md

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! To get started:

1. 🍴 Fork the repository
2. 🌿 Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/my-feature)
3. ✏️ Make your changes and add tests
4. ✅ Run dotnet test to verify everything passes
5. 📬 Open a Pull Request

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.