Zini.Configuration

Zini

A high-performance, zero-allocation INI-style configuration file parser for .NET 10 with Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration integration.

Features

• Zero-allocation hot path — uses SearchValues<char> for SIMD-accelerated parsing
• Immutable output — returns FrozenDictionary instances
• Case-insensitive sections and keys with OrdinalIgnoreCase comparison
• Section merging — duplicate sections merge automatically (last-write-wins for keys)
• Quoted values — preserves whitespace and comment characters inside "..."
• Inline comments — # and ; stripped from unquoted values
• Global keys — keys before any section header are supported
• Configuration integration — drop-in IConfigurationBuilder.AddConfigFile() extension

Installation

dotnet add package Zini.Configuration  # IConfigurationBuilder support

Quick Start

Direct Parsing

using Zini;

var config = ConfigParser.Parse("""
    # Application settings
    app_name = MyApp

    [Server]
    host = localhost
    port = 8080

    [Database]
    connection = "Server=db;Port=5432;User=""admin"""
    """);

// Access values
var host = config["Server"]["host"];       // "localhost"
var appName = config[""]["app_name"];       // "MyApp" (global section)

With Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration

using Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration;
using Zini.Configuration;

var configuration = new ConfigurationBuilder()
    .AddConfigFile("appsettings.ini", optional: false, reloadOnChange: true)
    .Build();

var host = configuration["Server:host"];   // "localhost"
var appName = configuration["app_name"];   // "MyApp" (global keys have no prefix)

Format Specification

See docs/config-format-spec.md for the full format specification including quoting rules, merging behavior, and error handling.

Building

dotnet build Zini.slnx
dotnet test Zini.slnx

License

MIT