IniFileClass

A thread-safe INI file reader/writer for .NET with support for comments and Shift-JIS encoding.

Features

• Thread-Safe: Process-level file locking prevents concurrent access issues
• Comment Preservation: Maintains comments when reading and writing INI files
• Shift-JIS Support: Default encoding for Japanese environments (Code Page 932)
• Quoted Values: Handles values containing spaces via quote wrapping
• Cross-Platform .NET: Works with both .NET Framework 4.8+ and .NET Core 3.1+

Supported Frameworks

• .NET Framework 4.8+
• .NET Core 3.1+
• .NET 5.0+ (including .NET 6.0, 7.0, 8.0)

Installation

From Source

Copy IniFileClass.cs and IniValue.cs to your project.

NuGet (Future)

dotnet add package IniFileUtils

Dependencies

For .NET Core/.NET 5+:

• System.Text.Encoding.CodePages (4.7.0 or later) - Required for Shift-JIS support

For .NET Framework:

• No additional dependencies required

Usage

Basic Read/Write

using IniFileUtils;

// Create and write INI file
var ini = new IniFileClass("app.ini");
ini.SetValue("Database", "Host", "localhost");
ini.SetValue("Database", "Port", "5432");
ini.SetValue("Database", "Password", "my pass", useQuotes: true);
ini.Save();

// Read from INI file
var ini = new IniFileClass("app.ini");
string host = ini.GetValue("Database", "Host");  // "localhost"
string port = ini.GetValue("Database", "Port");  // "5432"

Working with Comments

var ini = new IniFileClass("app.ini");

// Add section comment
ini.SetComment("Database", "Database configuration");

// Add key comment
ini.AddKeyComment("Database", "Host", "Database server hostname");

// Remove comment
ini.RemoveComment("Database", "Database configuration");

// Clear all comments
ini.ClearAllComments();

ini.Save();

Removing Keys/Sections

var ini = new IniFileClass("app.ini");

// Remove a key
ini.RemoveKey("Database", "Host");

// Remove a key and section if empty
ini.RemoveKey("OldSection", "OldKey", removeEmptySection: true);

// Remove entire section
ini.RemoveSection("OldSettings");

ini.Save();

Using Different Encoding

// Use UTF-8 instead of Shift-JIS
var ini = new IniFileClass("app.ini", Encoding.UTF8);
ini.SetValue("Settings", "Name", "テスト");
ini.Save();

Thread-Safe Multi-threaded Access

// Multiple threads can safely access the same INI file
var ini1 = new IniFileClass("app.ini");
var ini2 = new IniFileClass("app.ini");

Task.Run(() => {
    ini1.SetValue("Settings", "Key1", "Value1");
    ini1.Save();  // Automatically locks during write
});

Task.Run(() => {
    ini2.SetValue("Settings", "Key2", "Value2");
    ini2.Save();  // Waits for ini1 to complete
});

Thread Safety

• Process-Level: Thread-safe within a single process using internal file-based locking
• Multi-Process: Not suitable for concurrent access from multiple processes
• Limitation: Locking is per-file; different files can be accessed concurrently

For multi-process scenarios, consider implementing additional file-locking mechanisms (e.g., OS-level file locks).

API Reference

IniFileClass Constructor

public IniFileClass(string filePath = null, Encoding encoding = null)

• filePath: Path to the INI file. If null, creates an empty in-memory structure
• encoding: Character encoding (defaults to Shift-JIS)

Methods

Read Operations

Method	Description
GetValue(section, key)	Returns the value string or null if not found

Write Operations

Method	Description
SetValue(section, key, value, useQuotes)	Sets a key-value pair (creates section if needed)
RemoveKey(section, key, removeEmptySection)	Removes a key, optionally removing the section if empty
RemoveSection(section)	Removes an entire section
Save(filePath)	Saves to file (thread-safe). Optional new file path.

Comment Operations

Method	Description
SetComment(section, comment, prefix)	Adds a section comment (prefix: ;, #, or //)
RemoveComment(section, comment)	Removes a section comment
AddKeyComment(section, key, comment)	Adds a comment to a specific key
ClearAllComments()	Removes all comments from the INI file

INI File Format

; Section comment
[Database]
; Key comment
Host=localhost
Port=5432
Password="my pass word"

[Logging]
Level=Info

Limitations

• Encoding: Assumes uniform encoding throughout the file
• Multi-Process: Not safe for concurrent multi-process access
• Data Types: All values are strings; type conversion must be handled by the caller
• Key Order: Comment association is section-level; individual key-level comments are preserved

Thread Safety Notes

• Locking is per-file path. Multiple instances of IniFileClass pointing to the same file are safely synchronized.
• Locking is within-process only. Multiple separate processes accessing the same file are not protected.
• Locks are automatically cleaned up when the object is garbage collected.

License

Free

Contributing

Contributions, bug reports, and feature requests are welcome on GitHub.

Version History

1.0.0 (Initial Release)

• Core INI file read/write functionality
• Thread-safe process-level locking
• Comment preservation
• Shift-JIS encoding support
• .NET Framework 4.8+ and .NET Core 3.1+ compatibility