Any help on this?

just fgets a line at a time and fill in a structure, using a simple state
machine.

If you want to know about Windows specific file formats, try a Windows
specific group, or http://www.wotsit.org.

He wants to know if it's possible to find source code for a library or
example program that will do that.  As it sounds like this will run on a
Unix teminal console, then a windows group probably is not the best, as I
think windows has built-in functions for this sort of thing that will not be
available on Unix...

That said...  I do remember coming accross public domain libraries for doing
this.

This isn't the one I remember, but doing a simple web search I came up with
the following (amond others) that should work:
http://www.muquit.com/muquit/software/libmcfg/libmcfg.html

Samples, that I've found are more trouble to fix than write it from scratch.

I don't think it's 100% identical to Windoze, but it's tolerably close
for most things.

***ini.c
/*
** This .ini management code is placed into the Public Domain
** by Carey {*filter*}worth on May 26, 1998.
*/
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <ctype.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <ctype.h>
#include <limits.h>
#include <time.h>
#include <stdarg.h>

#include "pi.h"

/*
** Expect the following two macros to be defined:

** The standard C macro FILENAME_MAX might only be large enough for
** just the filename, and not any path.<disgust>  I need to allow
** enough for paths, too.
#define MAX_FILENAME 128
#define LINE_INPUT_MAX 256
*/

void
StripSpaces(char *string)
/*
** Strip leading and trailing spaces.
*/
{char *trailing;

while ((*string) && ((*string==' ') || (*string=='\t')))
  memmove(string,string+1,strlen(string));

trailing=string+strlen(string);
while ((*string) && ((*trailing==' ') || (*trailing=='\t')))
  *trailing-- = '\0';

memset(line,'\0',LINE_INPUT_MAX);
cp=fgets(line,LINE_INPUT_MAX-2,fp);

if (cp==NULL)      {*line='\0';return FALSE;}
if (feof(fp)!=0)   {*line='\0';return FALSE;}
if (ferror(fp)!=0) {*line='\0';return FALSE;}

StripLF(line);

return TRUE;

while (tolower(*s1)==tolower(*s2))
  {if (*s1=='\0') return TRUE;
   s1++;s2++;
  }
return FALSE;

if ((line[0]==';') || (line[0]=='%') || (line[0]=='#'))
  {
   strcpy(data,line);
   return;
  }
strcpy(var,line);

str=strpbrk(var," =\t");
if (str!=NULL)
  {
   strcpy(data,str);
   *str='\0';
   if ((*data==' ') || (*data=='\t')) StripSpaces(data);
   if (*data=='=') {*data=' ';StripSpaces(data);}
  }

  f=fopen(FileName,"rb");
  if (f==NULL) return FALSE;
  fclose(f);
  return TRUE;

strcpy(TempFileName,"tempfile.tmp");

do {
    srand((unsigned int)time(NULL)+tries);
    for (x=4;x<8;x++)
     TempFileName[x]=(char)('0'+(rand() % 10));
    if (!FileExists(TempFileName))
       TempFile=fopen(TempFileName,"w");
    tries++;
   } while ((TempFile==NULL) && (tries<100));

if (TempFile==NULL) return FALSE;
fclose(TempFile);
return TRUE;

if (!CreateTempFileName(TempFileName))
  {
   DumpDebug("Unable to create a temporary filename to update
%s\n",FileName);
   return FALSE;
  }

NewCfgFile=fopen(TempFileName,"w");
if (NewCfgFile==NULL)
  {
   DumpDebug("Unable to open a temporary file to update
%s\n",TempFileName);
   return FALSE;
  }

sprintf(SectionWanted,"[%s]",SectionName);

CfgFile=fopen(FileName,"r");
if (CfgFile)
  {
   while (ReadLine(CfgFile,line))
      {
       if (StrEqIC(line,SectionWanted)) InSection=TRUE;
       else if (InSection && (line[0]=='['))
         {/* leaving our section */
           InSection=FALSE;
           if (!Updated) /* Variable wasn't found, we have to add it
*/
             {
              fprintf(NewCfgFile,"%s = %s\n",VarWanted,NewData);
              while (BlankLines)
{fprintf(NewCfgFile,"\n");BlankLines--;}
              Updated=TRUE;
             }
         }
       if (line[0]=='\0') BlankLines++;
       else
         {
          while (BlankLines) {fprintf(NewCfgFile,"\n");BlankLines--;}
          ParseLine(line,var,data);
          if (InSection && StrEqIC(var,VarWanted) && !Updated)
            {
             fprintf(NewCfgFile,"%s = %s\n",var,NewData);
             Updated=TRUE;
            }
          else fprintf(NewCfgFile,"%s\n",line);
         }
      }
  }

/*
** Our section may not have even been there (or there wasn't already
** a config file) in which case we have to add both the variable and
** the section itself.
*/
if (!Updated)
  {  /* We may have hit EOF while still in our section. */
     /* If so, we don't need to add the section header. */
   if (!InSection)
     {
      if (BlankLines!=0) fprintf(NewCfgFile,"\n");
      fprintf(NewCfgFile,"%s\n",SectionWanted);
     }
   fprintf(NewCfgFile,"%s = %s\n",VarWanted,NewData);
  }

fprintf(NewCfgFile,"\n");

if (CfgFile && ferror(CfgFile))    Status=FALSE;
if (ferror(NewCfgFile)) Status=FALSE;
if (CfgFile) fclose(CfgFile);
fclose(NewCfgFile);

if (!Status) remove(TempFileName);
else
  {/*if (remove(FileName)) return FALSE;*/
   remove(FileName);
   if (rename(TempFileName,FileName)) return FALSE;
  }

return Status;

CfgFile=fopen(FileName,"r");
if (CfgFile==NULL)
  {
   DumpDebug("File %s not found.\n",FileName);
   return FALSE;
  }

sprintf(SectionWanted,"[%s]",SectionName);

while (ReadLine(CfgFile,line))
   {
    if (StrEqIC(line,SectionWanted))        InSection=TRUE;
    else if (InSection && (line[0]=='[')) InSection=FALSE;
    if (InSection)
        {
         ParseLine(line,var,Data);
         if (StrEqIC(VarName,var))
           {
            fclose(CfgFile);
            return TRUE;
           }
        }
   }

fclose(CfgFile);
*Data='\0';
return FALSE;

if (MaxItems==0) return 0;  /* Got to have something to read */
if (!FindCfgLine(FileName, SectionName, VarName, Str))
  {
   DumpDebug("File=%s Sect=%s Var=%s Data= **NOT FOUND**\n",
             FileName,SectionName,VarName);
   return 0;
  }

/*
** Found the line we wanted, now convert the string to
** the data format we want.
*/
if (DataType==Cfg_String)
  {
   if (MaxItems==0) return 0;
   if (strlen(Str) >= MaxItems) Str[MaxItems-1]='\0';
   strcpy((char*)DataPtr,Str);
   DumpDebug("File=%s Sect=%s Var=%s Data=%s\n",
            FileName,SectionName,VarName,DataPtr);
   return MaxItems;
  }

The stumbling block, of course, generally turns out to be that most of
the "zillion" apps in question are actually just MS Office, Access,
PowerPoint, or VisualWhateverOfTheDay.  And surprise, surprise, Microsoft
seems awfully reluctant to do anything that might enable people to port
these apps away from the one platform that they control, "Wintel".

Customers *want* to hear that they can do without Microsoft.  And contrary
to popular FUD, differences in the UI, window managers, etc., are *not*
actually keeping most people from using Microsoft alternatives.  When
people see the latest X Windows environments, they typically say "wow, how
come Windows doesn't have that".  Remote display and administration of <N>
desktops from one central location?  It's the stuff of dreams in the
Wintel world, the cutting edge.  With the right third-party software,
maybe you can do that, but most users haven't even grasped that it is
possible, yet.  Secretaries are not actually stupid, as it turns out: give
them a consistent and sensible enviroment (especially one that is
*reliable* for a change), and give them a reasonable time to learn it, and
they are generally quite adaptable.

What customers *don't* want to hear is how they can do without Microsoft
by hiring a team of Unix programmers to write shell scripts, how they
can easily use{*filter*}instead of Word, as long as they are willing to
accept a completely new and counterintuitive definition of the term
"easy", etc..

When there is a Unix platform that seamlessly runs Office, or that
seamlessly accepts and produces all the Office file formats even,
it's all over for Bill's little monopoly.  He knows that, and he is
certainly no fool.  It'll happen eventually, but the biggest corporation
in the world will be making sure it happens as slowly and painfully as
possible.  By that time, Bill will have safely moved his eggs into
the "control of multimedia content and formats" basket.

--Ben

ps  I hope its in C....