tomlc99

TOML in c99; v1.0 compliant.

If you are looking for a C++ library, you might try this wrapper: https://github.com/cktan/tomlcpp.

Usage

Please see the toml.h file for details. What follows is a simple example that parses this config file:

[server]
	host = "www.example.com"
	port = 80

The steps for getting values from our file is usually :

1. Parse the whole TOML file.
2. Get a single table from the file.
3. Find a value from the table.
4. Then, free up that memory if needed.

Below is an example of parsing the values from the example table.

1. Parse the whole TOML file.

FILE* fp;
toml_table_t* conf;
char errbuf[200];

/* Open the file and parse content */
if (0 == (fp = fopen("path/to/file.toml", "r"))) {
	return handle_error();
}
conf = toml_parse_file(fp, errbuf, sizeof(errbuf));
fclose(fp);      
if (0 == conf) {
	return handle_error();
}


/* Alternatively, use `toml_parse` which takes a string rather than a file. */
conf = toml_parse("A null terminated string that is TOML\0", errbuf, sizeof(errbuf));

2. Get a single table from the file.

toml_table_t* server;

/* Locate the [server] table. */
if (0 == (server = toml_table_in(conf, "server"))) {
	return handle_error();
}

3. Find a value from the table.

/* Extract 'host' config value. */
toml_access_t host = toml_string_in(server, "host");
if (!host.ok) {
	toml_free(conf);
	return handle_error();
}

toml_access_t port = toml_int_in(server, "port");
if (!port.ok) {
	toml_free(conf);
	free(host.u.s);
	return handle_error();
}

printf("host %s\n", host.u.s);
printf("port %d\n", port.u.i);

4. Then, free up that memory if needed.

/* Use `toml_free` on the table returned from `toml_parse[_file]`.
 * NOTE: you only need to `toml_free` the root table returned by `toml_parse[_file]`;
 * internal tables do not need to be freed.
 */
toml_free(conf);

/* Free any string values returned from access functions. */
free(host.u.s);

Accessing Table Content

TOML tables are dictionaries where lookups are done using string keys. In general, all access methods on tables are named toml_*_in(...).

Keys in tables can be iterrogated using a key index:

toml_table_t* tab = toml_parse_file(...);
for (int i = 0; ; i++) {
    const char* key = toml_key_in(tab, i);
    if (!key) break;
    printf("key %d: %s\n", i, key);
}

Once you know a key and its content type, you can obtain its content in the table by one of these methods:

toml_string_in(tab, key);
toml_bool_in(tab, key);
toml_int_in(tab, key);
toml_double_in(tab, key);
toml_timestamp_in(tab, key);
toml_table_in(tab, key);
toml_array_in(tab, key);

Accessing Array Content

TOML arrays can be deref-ed using integer values. In general, all access methods on arrays are named toml_*_at().

To obtain the size of an array:

int size = toml_array_nelem(arr);

To obtain the content of an array, use an valid index and call one of these functions:

toml_string_at(arr, idx);
toml_bool_at(arr, idx);
toml_int_at(arr, idx);
toml_double_at(arr, idx);
toml_timestamp_at(arr, idx);
toml_table_at(arr, idx);
toml_array_at(arr, idx);

toml_access_t

Some toml_*_at and toml_*_in functions return a toml_access_t structure. The ok flag in the structure indicates if the function call was successful. If so, you may proceed to read the value corresponding to the type of the call.

For example:

toml_access_t host = toml_string_in(tab, "host");
if (host.ok) {
	printf("host: %s\n", host.u.s);
	free(host.u.s);   /* FREE applies to string type only */
}

Building and installing

A normal make suffices. You can also simply include the toml.c and toml.h files in your project.

Invoking make install will install the header file in /usr/local/include and library files in /usr/local/lib.

Alternatively, specify make install prefix=/a/file/path to install into /a/file/path/include and /a/file/path/lib/.

Testing

To test against the standard test set provided by BurntSushi/toml-test:

% make
% cd test1
% bash build.sh   # do this once
% bash run.sh     # this will run the test suite

To test against the standard test set provided by iarna/toml:

% make
% cd test2
% bash build.sh   # do this once
% bash run.sh     # this will run the test suite