xref: /freebsd/lib/libutil/property.3 (revision 732a02b4e77866604a120a275c082bb6221bd2ff)
1.\"
2.\" Copyright (c) 1998 Jordan Hubbard
3.\"
4.\" All rights reserved.
5.\"
6.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
7.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
8.\" are met:
9.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
10.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
11.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
12.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
13.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
14.\"
15.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE DEVELOPERS ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR
16.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES
17.\" OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED.
18.\" IN NO EVENT SHALL THE DEVELOPERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT,
19.\" INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT
20.\" NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE,
21.\" DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY
22.\" THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT
23.\" (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF
24.\" THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
25.\"
26.\" $FreeBSD$
27.\" "
28.Dd October 7, 1998
29.Dt PROPERTIES 3
30.Os
31.Sh NAME
32.Nm properties_read ,
33.Nm property_find ,
34.Nm properties_free
35.Nd "functions to allow creating simple property lists from ASCII file data"
36.Sh LIBRARY
37.Lb libutil
38.Sh SYNOPSIS
39.In libutil.h
40.Ft properties
41.Fn properties_read "int fd"
42.Ft char *
43.Fn property_find "properties list" "const char *name"
44.Ft void
45.Fn properties_free "properties list"
46.Sh DESCRIPTION
47.Bd -literal
48typedef struct _properties {
49	struct _properties *next;
50	char *name;
51	char *value;
52} *properties;
53.Ed
54.Pp
55The function
56.Fn properties_read
57reads
58.Fa name = value
59pairs from the file descriptor passed in
60.Fa fd
61and returns the head of a new property list, assuming that the
62file's contents have been parsed properly, or NULL in case
63of error.
64.Pp
65The
66.Fn property_find
67function returns the associated value string for the property named
68.Fa name
69if found, otherwise NULL.
70The value returned may be up to
71.Dv PROPERTY_MAX_VALUE
72bytes in length.
73.Pp
74The
75.Fn properties_free
76function is used to free the structure returned by
77.Fn properties_read
78when it is no longer needed.
79.Sh FILE FORMAT
80Each property in the file is assumed to have the format of
81.Fa name = value
82where
83.Fa name
84is an alphanumeric string (and any punctuation not including the `=' character)
85and
86.Fa value
87is an arbitrary string of text terminated by a newline character.
88If newlines
89are desired, the entire value should be enclosed in { } (curly-bracket)
90characters.
91Any line beginning with a # or ; character is assumed to
92be a comment and will be ignored.
93.Sh AUTHORS
94.An Jordan Hubbard
95.Sh BUGS
96Simplistic.
97