parse_ini_file

(PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)

parse_ini_file — Parse a configuration file

Description

parse_ini_file(string $filename, bool $process_sections = false, int $scanner_mode = INI_SCANNER_NORMAL): array|false

parse_ini_file() loads in the ini file specified in filename, and returns the settings in it in an associative array.

The structure of the ini file is the same as the php.ini's.

Parameters

filename

The filename of the ini file being parsed. If a relative path is used, it is evaluated relative to the current working directory, then the include_path.

process_sections

By setting the process_sections parameter to true, you get a multidimensional array, with the section names and settings included. The default for process_sections is false

scanner_mode

Can either be INI_SCANNER_NORMAL (default) or INI_SCANNER_RAW. If INI_SCANNER_RAW is supplied, then option values will not be parsed.

As of PHP 5.6.1 can also be specified as INI_SCANNER_TYPED. In this mode boolean, null and integer types are preserved when possible. String values "true", "on" and "yes" are converted to true. "false", "off", "no" and "none" are considered false. "null" is converted to null in typed mode. Also, all numeric strings are converted to integer type if it is possible.

Return Values

The settings are returned as an associative array on success, and false on failure.

Examples

Example #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"

[third_section]
phpversion[] = "5.0"
phpversion[] = "5.1"
phpversion[] = "5.2"
phpversion[] = "5.3"

urls[svn] = "http://svn.php.net"
urls[git] = "http://git.php.net"

Example #2 parse_ini_file() example

Constants (but not "magic constants" like __FILE__) 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, and the value must be just the constant. For 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);

?>

The above example will output something similar to:

Array
(
    [one] => 1
    [five] => 5
    [animal] => Dodo bird
    [path] => /usr/local/bin
    [URL] => http://www.example.com/~username
    [phpversion] => Array
        (
            [0] => 5.0
            [1] => 5.1
            [2] => 5.2
            [3] => 5.3
        )

    [urls] => Array
        (
            [svn] => http://svn.php.net
            [git] => http://git.php.net
        )

)
Array
(
    [first_section] => Array
        (
            [one] => 1
            [five] => 5
            [animal] => Dodo bird
        )

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

    [third_section] => Array
        (
            [phpversion] => Array
                (
                    [0] => 5.0
                    [1] => 5.1
                    [2] => 5.2
                    [3] => 5.3
                )

            [urls] => Array
                (
                    [svn] => http://svn.php.net
                    [git] => http://git.php.net
                )

        )

)

Example #3 parse_ini_file() parsing a php.ini file

<?php
// A simple function used for comparing the results below
function yesno($expression)
{
    return($expression ? 'Yes' : 'No');
}

// Get the path to php.ini using the php_ini_loaded_file() function
$ini_path = php_ini_loaded_file();

// Parse php.ini
$ini = parse_ini_file($ini_path);

// Print and compare the values, note that using get_cfg_var()
// will give the same results for parsed and loaded here
echo '(parsed) magic_quotes_gpc = ' . yesno($ini['magic_quotes_gpc']) . PHP_EOL;
echo '(loaded) magic_quotes_gpc = ' . yesno(get_cfg_var('magic_quotes_gpc')) . PHP_EOL;
?>

The above example will output something similar to:

(parsed) magic_quotes_gpc = Yes
(loaded) magic_quotes_gpc = Yes

Example #4 Value Interpolation

In addition to evaluating constants, certain characters have special meaning in an ini value. Additionally, environment variables and previously defined configuration options (see get_cfg_var()) may be read using ${} syntax.

; | is used for bitwise OR
three = 2|3

; & is used for bitwise AND
four = 6&5

; ^ is used for bitwise XOR
five = 3^6

; ~ is used for bitwise negate
negative_two = ~1

; () is used for grouping
seven = (8|7)&(6|5)

; Interpolate the PATH environment variable
path = ${PATH}

; Interpolate the configuration option 'memory_limit'
configured_memory_limit = ${memory_limit}

Example #5 Escaping Characters

Some characters have special meaning in double-quoted strings and must be escaped by the backslash prefix. First of all, these are the double quote " as the boundary marker, and the backslash \ itself (if followed by one of the special characters):

quoted = "She said \"Exactly my point\"." ; Results in a string with quote marks in it.
hint = "Use \\\" to escape double quote" ; Results in: Use \" to escape double quote

There is an exception made for Windows-like paths: it's possible to not escape trailing backslash if the quoted string is directly followed by a linebreak:

save_path = "C:\Temp\"

If one does need to escape double quote followed by linebreak in a multiline value, it's possible to use value concatenation in the following way (there is one double-quoted string directly followed by another one):

long_text = "Lorem \"ipsum\"""
 dolor" ; Results in: Lorem "ipsum"\n dolor

Another character with special meaning is $ (the dollar sign). It must be escaped if followed by the open curly brace:

code = "\${test}"

Escaping characters is not supported in the INI_SCANNER_RAW mode (in this mode all characters are processed "as is").

Note that the ini parser doesn't support standard escape sequences (\n, \t, etc.). If necessary, post-process the result of parse_ini_file() with stripcslashes() function.

Notes

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

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

Note: There are reserved words which must not be used as keys for ini files. These include: null, yes, no, true, false, on, off, none. Values null, off, no and false result in "", and values on, yes and true result in "1", unless INI_SCANNER_TYPED mode is used. Characters ?{}|&~!()^" must not be used anywhere in the key and have a special meaning in the value.

Note:
Entries without an equal sign are ignored. For example, "foo" is ignored whereas "bar =" is parsed and added with an empty value. For example, MySQL has a "no-auto-rehash" setting in my.cnf that does not take a value, so it is ignored.

Note:
ini files are generally treated as plain text by web servers and thus served to browsers if requested. That means for security you must either keep your ini files outside of your docroot or reconfigure your web server to not serve them. Failure to do either of those may introduce a security risk.

User Contributed Notes 12 notes

down

jeremygiberson at gmail dot com ¶

15 years ago


Here is a quick parse_ini_file wrapper to add extend support to save typing and redundancy.
<?php
    /**
     * Parses INI file adding extends functionality via ":base" postfix on namespace.
     *
     * @param string $filename
     * @return array
     */
    function parse_ini_file_extended($filename) {
        $p_ini = parse_ini_file($filename, true);
        $config = array();
        foreach($p_ini as $namespace => $properties){
            list($name, $extends) = explode(':', $namespace);
            $name = trim($name);
            $extends = trim($extends);
            // create namespace if necessary
            if(!isset($config[$name])) $config[$name] = array();
            // inherit base namespace
            if(isset($p_ini[$extends])){
                foreach($p_ini[$extends] as $prop => $val)
                    $config[$name][$prop] = $val;
            }
            // overwrite / set current namespace values
            foreach($properties as $prop => $val)
            $config[$name][$prop] = $val;
        }
        return $config;
    }
?>

Treats this ini:
<?php 
/*
[base]
host=localhost
user=testuser
pass=testpass
database=default

[users:base]
database=users

[archive : base]
database=archive
*/
?>
As if it were like this:
<?php
/*
[base]
host=localhost
user=testuser
pass=testpass
database=default

[users:base]
host=localhost
user=testuser
pass=testpass
database=users

[archive : base]
host=localhost
user=testuser
pass=testpass
database=archive
*/
?>

down

Rekam ¶

10 years ago


You may want, in some very special cases, to parse multi-dimensional array with N levels in your ini file. Something like setting[data][config][debug] = true will result in an error (expected "=").

Here's a little function to match this, using dots (customizable).
<?php
function parse_ini_file_multi($file, $process_sections = false, $scanner_mode = INI_SCANNER_NORMAL) {
    $explode_str = '.';
    $escape_char = "'";
    // load ini file the normal way
    $data = parse_ini_file($file, $process_sections, $scanner_mode);
    if (!$process_sections) {
        $data = array($data);
    }
    foreach ($data as $section_key => $section) {
        // loop inside the section
        foreach ($section as $key => $value) {
            if (strpos($key, $explode_str)) {
                if (substr($key, 0, 1) !== $escape_char) {
                    // key has a dot. Explode on it, then parse each subkeys
                    // and set value at the right place thanks to references
                    $sub_keys = explode($explode_str, $key);
                    $subs =& $data[$section_key];
                    foreach ($sub_keys as $sub_key) {
                        if (!isset($subs[$sub_key])) {
                            $subs[$sub_key] = [];
                        }
                        $subs =& $subs[$sub_key];
                    }
                    // set the value at the right place
                    $subs = $value;
                    // unset the dotted key, we don't need it anymore
                    unset($data[$section_key][$key]);
                }
                // we have escaped the key, so we keep dots as they are
                else {
                    $new_key = trim($key, $escape_char);
                    $data[$section_key][$new_key] = $value;
                    unset($data[$section_key][$key]);
                }
            }
        }
    }
    if (!$process_sections) {
        $data = $data[0];
    }
    return $data;
}
?>

The following file:
<?php
/*
[normal]
foo = bar
; use quotes to keep your key as it is
'foo.with.dots' = true

[array]
foo[] = 1
foo[] = 2

[dictionary]
foo[debug] = false
foo[path] = /some/path

[multi]
foo.data.config.debug = true
foo.data.password = 123456
*/
?>

will result in:
<?php
parse_ini_file_multi('file.ini', true);

Array
(
    [normal] => Array
        (
            [foo] => bar
            [foo.with.dots] => 1
        )
    [array] => Array
        (
            [foo] => Array
                (
                    [0] => 1
                    [1] => 2
                )
        )
    [dictionary] => Array
        (
            [foo] => Array
                (
                    [debug] => 
                    [path] => /some/path
                )
        )
    [multi] => Array
        (
            [foo] => Array
                (
                    [data] => Array
                        (
                            [config] => Array
                                (
                                    [debug] => 1
                                )
                            [password] => 123456
                        )
                )
        )
)
?>

down

dschnepper at box dot com ¶

8 years ago


The documentation states:
Characters ?{}|&~!()^" must not be used anywhere in the key and have a special meaning in the value.

Here's the results of my experiments on what they mean:

; | is used for bitwise OR
three = 2|3

; & is used for bitwise AND
four = 6&5

; ^ is used for bitwise XOR
five = 3^6

; ~ is used for bitwise negate
negative_two = ~1

; () is used for grouping
seven = (8|7)&(6|5)

; ${...} is used for grabbing values from the environment, or previously defined values.
path = ${PATH}
also = ${five}

; ? I have no guess for
; ! I have no guess for

down

YAPs ¶

8 years ago


This function for save ini files



<?php

function array_to_ini($array,$out="")

{

    $t="";

    $q=false;

    foreach($array as $c=>$d)

    {

        if(is_array($d))$t.=array_to_ini($d,$c);

        else

        {

            if($c===intval($c))

            {

                if(!empty($out))

                {

                    $t.="\r\n".$out." = \"".$d."\"";

                    if($q!=2)$q=true;

                }

                else $t.="\r\n".$d;

            }

            else

            {    

                $t.="\r\n".$c." = \"".$d."\"";

                $q=2;

            }

        }

    }

    if($q!=true && !empty($out)) return "[".$out."]\r\n".$t;

    if(!empty($out)) return  $t;

    return trim($t);

}



function save_ini_file($array,$file)

{

    $a=array_to_ini($array);

    $ffl=fopen($file,"w");

    fwrite($ffl,$a);

    fclose($ffl);

}

?>

down

info () gaj ! design ¶

7 years ago


Not mentioned in the documentation, this function acts like include:

"Files are included based on the file path given or, if none is given, the include_path specified. If the file isn't found in the include_path, include will finally check in the calling script's own directory and the current working directory before failing."

(At least for PHP 7; have not checked PHP 5.)

down

kieran dot huggins at rogers dot com ¶

21 years ago


Just a quick note for all those running into trouble escaping double quotes:

I got around this by "base64_encode()"-ing my content on the way in to the ini file, and "base64_decode()"-ing on the way out.

Because base64 uses the "=" sign, you will have to encapsulate the entire value in double quotes so the line looks like this:

    varname = "TmlhZ2FyYSBGYWxscywgT04="

When base64'd, your strings will retain all \n, \t...etc...  URL's retain everything perfectly :-)

I hope some of you find this useful!

Cheers, Kieran

down

Justin Hall ¶

18 years ago


This is a simple (but slightly hackish) way of avoiding the character limitations (in values):

<?php
define('QUOTE', '"');
$test = parse_ini_file('test.ini');

echo "<pre>";
print_r($test);
?>

contents of test.ini:

park yesterday = "I (walked) | {to} " QUOTE"the"QUOTE " park yesterday & saw ~three~ dogs!"

output:

<?php
Array
(
    [park yesterday] => I (walked) | {to} "the" park yesterday & saw ~three~ dogs!
)
?>

down

goulven.ch AT gmail DOT com ¶

17 years ago


Warning: parse_ini_files cannot cope with values containing the equal sign (=).

The following function supports sections, comments, arrays, and key-value pairs outside of any section.
Beware that similar keys will overwrite one another (unless in different sections).

<?php
function parse_ini ( $filepath ) {
    $ini = file( $filepath );
    if ( count( $ini ) == 0 ) { return array(); }
    $sections = array();
    $values = array();
    $globals = array();
    $i = 0;
    foreach( $ini as $line ){
        $line = trim( $line );
        // Comments
        if ( $line == '' || $line{0} == ';' ) { continue; }
        // Sections
        if ( $line{0} == '[' ) {
            $sections[] = substr( $line, 1, -1 );
            $i++;
            continue;
        }
        // Key-value pair
        list( $key, $value ) = explode( '=', $line, 2 );
        $key = trim( $key );
        $value = trim( $value );
        if ( $i == 0 ) {
            // Array values
            if ( substr( $line, -1, 2 ) == '[]' ) {
                $globals[ $key ][] = $value;
            } else {
                $globals[ $key ] = $value;
            }
        } else {
            // Array values
            if ( substr( $line, -1, 2 ) == '[]' ) {
                $values[ $i - 1 ][ $key ][] = $value;
            } else {
                $values[ $i - 1 ][ $key ] = $value;
            }
        }
    }
    for( $j=0; $j<$i; $j++ ) {
        $result[ $sections[ $j ] ] = $values[ $j ];
    }
    return $result + $globals;
}
?>

Example usage:
<?php
$stores = parse_ini('stores.ini');
print_r( $stores );
?>

An example ini file:
<?php
/*
;Commented line start with ';'
global_value1 = a string value
global_value1 = another string value

; empty lines are discarded
[Section1]
key = value
; whitespace around keys and values is discarded too
otherkey=other value
otherkey=yet another value
; this key-value pair will overwrite the former.
*/
?>

down

simon dot riget at gmail dot com ¶

11 years ago


.ini files or JSON file format as it is also known as, are very useful format to store stuff in. Especially large arrays. 

Strangely enough there is this nice function to read the file, but no function to write it.

So here is one.

Use it as:  put_ini_file(string $file, array $array)

<?php 
function put_ini_file($file, $array, $i = 0){
  $str="";
  foreach ($array as $k => $v){
    if (is_array($v)){
      $str.=str_repeat(" ",$i*2)."[$k]".PHP_EOL; 
      $str.=put_ini_file("",$v, $i+1);
    }else
      $str.=str_repeat(" ",$i*2)."$k = $v".PHP_EOL; 
  }
 if($file)
    return file_put_contents($file,$str);
  else
    return $str;
}
?>

down

eciruam35 at gmail dot com ¶

1 year ago


fix a little bug (here) in function put_ini_file:

function put_ini_file($config, $file, $has_section = false, $write_to_file = true){
    $fileContent = '';
    if(!empty($config)){
        foreach($config as $i=>$v){
            if($has_section){
                $fileContent .= "\n[$i]".PHP_EOL.put_ini_file($v, $file, false, false);
            }
            else{
                if(is_array($v)){
                    foreach($v as $t=>$m){
//--->>> Here                        $fileContent .= "-->$i[$t] = ".(is_numeric($m) ? $m : '"'.$m.'"').PHP_EOL;
                        $fileContent .= "$i"."[] = ".(is_numeric($m) ? $m : '"'.$m.'"').PHP_EOL;
                    }
                }
                else $fileContent .= "$i = ".(is_numeric($v) ? $v : '"'.$v.'"').PHP_EOL;
            }
        }
    }

    if($write_to_file && strlen($fileContent)) return file_put_contents($file, $fileContent, LOCK_EX);
    else return $fileContent;
}

down

manngo ¶

1 year ago


Securing your .ini file:

“ini files are generally treated as plain text by web servers and thus served to browsers if requested. That means for security you must either keep your ini files outside of your docroot or reconfigure your web server to not serve them. Failure to do either of those may introduce a security risk.”

Alternatively, you can save you file as:

stuff.ini.php

add this to the beginning:

;<?php die('go away'); ?>

The semicolon at the beginning is treated as comment, so this line has no effect on the ini file.

Since the file has a .php extension, it will run through the PHP interpreter if you attempt to access this file directly, and the php block will be processed and exit.

The file extension has no ill effect on the parse_ini_file() function, and the .ini part is, of course, a matter of taste.

down

jbricci at ya-right dot com ¶

9 years ago


This core function won't handle ini key[][] = value(s), (multidimensional arrays), so if you need to support that kind of setup you will need to write your own function. one way to do it is to convert all the key = value(s) to array string [key][][]=value(s), then use parse_str() to convert all those [key][][]=value(s) that way you just read the ini file line by line, instead of doing crazy foreach() loops to handle those (multidimensional arrays) in each section, example...

ini file...... config.php

<?php

; 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"

[third_section]
phpversion[] = "5.0"
phpversion[] = "5.1"
phpversion[] = "5.2"
phpversion[] = "5.3"

urls[svn] = "http://svn.php.net"
urls[git] = "http://git.php.net"

[fourth_section]

a[][][] = b
a[][][][] = c
a[test_test][][] = d
test[one][two][three] = true

?>

echo parse_ini_file ( "C:\\services\\www\\docs\\config.php" );

results in...

// PHP Warning:  syntax error, unexpected TC_SECTION, expecting '=' line 27 -> a[][][] = b

Here it simple function that handles (multidimensional arrays) without looping each key[][]= value(s)

<?php

function getIni ( $file, $sections = FALSE )
{
    $return = array ();

    $keeper = array ();

    $config = fopen ( $file, 'r' );

    while ( ! feof ( $config ) )
    { 
        $line = trim ( fgets ( $config, 1024 ) );

        $line = ( $line == '' ) ? ' ' : $line;

        switch ( $line{0} )
        {
            case ' ':
            case '#':
            case '/':
            case ';':
            case '<':
            case '?':

            break;

            case '[':

            if ( $sections )
            {
                $header = 'config[' . trim ( substr ( $line, 1, -1 ) ) . ']';
            }
            else
            {
                $header = 'config';
            }

            break;

            default:

            $kv = array_map ( 'trim', explode ( '=', $line ) );

            $kv[0] = str_replace ( ' ', '+', $kv[0] );

            $kv[1] = str_replace ( ' ', '+', $kv[1] );

            if ( ( $pos = strpos ( $kv[0], '[' ) ) !== FALSE )
            {
                $kv[0] = '[' . substr ( $kv[0], 0, $pos ) . ']' . substr ( $kv[0], $pos );
            }
            else
            {
                $kv[0] = '[' . $kv[0] . ']';
            }

            $bt = strtolower ( $kv[1] );

            if ( in_array ( $bt, array ( 'true', 'false', 'on', 'off' ) ) )
            {
                $kv[1] = ( $bt == 'true' || $bt == 'on' ) ? TRUE : FALSE;
            }

            $keeper[] = $header . $kv[0] . '=' . $kv[1];
        }
    }

    fclose ( $config );

    parse_str ( implode ( '&', $keeper ), $return );

    return $return['config'];
}

// usage...

$sections = TRUE;

print_r ( $config->getIni ( "C:\\services\\www\\docs\\config.php" ),  $sections );

?>

add a note

parse_ini_file

Description

Parameters

Return Values

Examples

Notes

See Also

User Contributed Notes 12 notes