xref: /freebsd/lib/libutil/property.3 (revision 7aa383846770374466b1dcb2cefd71bde9acf463)
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 propery_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 sys/types.h
40.In libutil.h
41.Ft properties
42.Fn properties_read "int fd"
43.Ft char *
44.Fn property_find "properties list" "const char *name"
45.Ft void
46.Fn properties_free "properties list"
47.Sh DESCRIPTION
48.Bd -literal
49typedef struct _properties {
50	struct _properties *next;
51	char *name;
52	char *value;
53} *properties;
54.Ed
55.Pp
56The function
57.Fn properties_read
58reads
59.Fa name = value
60pairs from the file descriptor passed in
61.Fa fd
62and returns the head of a new property list, assuming that the
63file's contents have been parsed properly, or NULL in case
64of error.
65.Pp
66The
67.Fn property_find
68function returns the associated value string for the property named
69.Fa name
70if found, otherwise NULL.
71The value returned may be up to
72.Dv PROPERTY_MAX_VALUE
73bytes in length.
74.Pp
75The
76.Fn properties_free
77function is used to free the structure returned by
78.Fn properties_read
79when it is no longer needed.
80.Sh FILE FORMAT
81Each property in the file is assumed to have the format of
82.Fa name = value
83where
84.Fa name
85is an alphanumeric string (and any punctuation not including the `=' character)
86and
87.Fa value
88is an arbitary string of text terminated by a newline character.
89If newlines
90are desired, the entire value should be enclosed in { } (curly-bracket)
91characters.
92Any line beginning with a # or ; character is assumed to
93be a comment and will be ignored.
94.Sh SEE ALSO
95.Xr auth_getval 3
96.Sh AUTHORS
97.An Jordan Hubbard
98.Sh BUGS
99Simplistic.
100