properties(3)

NAME

properties_read, propery_find, properties_free - functions

to allow creating simple property lists from ASCII file data

LIBRARY

System Utilities Library (libutil, -lutil)

SYNOPSIS

#include <sys/types.h>
#include <libutil.h>
properties
properties_read(int fd);
char *
property_find(properties list, const char *name);
void
properties_free(properties list);

DESCRIPTION

typedef struct _properties {

struct _properties *next;
char *name;
char *value;

} *properties;

The function properties_read() reads name = value pairs from

the file
descriptor passed in fd and returns the head of a new prop

erty list,
assuming that the file's contents have been parsed properly,

or NULL in
case of error.

The property_find() function returns the associated value

string for the
property named name if found, otherwise NULL. The value re

turned may be
up to PROPERTY_MAX_VALUE bytes in length.

The properties_free() function is used to free the structure

returned by
properties_read() when it is no longer needed.

FILE FORMAT

Each property in the file is assumed to have the format of

name = value
where name is an alphanumeric string (and any punctuation

not including
the `=' character) and value is an arbitary string of text

terminated by
a newline character. If newlines are desired, the entire

value should be
enclosed in { } (curly-bracket) characters. Any line begin

ning with a #
or ; character is assumed to be a comment and will be ig

nored.

SEE ALSO

auth_getval(3)

AUTHORS

Jordan Hubbard

BUGS

Simplistic.

BSD October 7, 1998

BSD