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.\" Copyright (c) 1998 Jordan Hubbard
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.Dd October 7, 1998
.Os
.Dt PROPERTIES 3
.Sh NAME
.Nm properties_read , 
.Nm propery_find ,
.Nm properties_free
.Nd functions to allow creating simple property lists from ASCII file data.
.Sh LIBRARY
.Lb libutil
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Fd #include <sys/types.h>
.Fd #include <libutil.h>
.Ft properties
.Fn properties_read "int fd"
.Ft char *
.Fn property_find "properties list" "const char *name"
.Ft void
.Fn properties_free "properties list"
.Sh DESCRIPTION
.nf
typedef struct _properties {
	struct _properties *next;
	char *name;
	char *value;
} *properties;
.fi

The function
.Fn properties_read
reads
.Fa name = value
pairs from the file descriptor passed in
.Fa fd
and returns the head of a new property list, assuming that the
file's contents have been parsed properly, or NULL in case
of error.
.Pp
.Fn property_find
Returns the associated value string for the property named
.Fa name
if found, otherwise NULL.
.Pp
.Fn properties_free
is used to free the structure returned by
.Fn properties_read
when it is no longer needed.
.Pp
.Sh FILE FORMAT
Each property in the file is assumed to have the format of
.Fa name = value
where
.Fa name
is an alphanumeric string (and any punctuation not including the `=' character) 
and
.Fa 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 beginning with a # or ; character is assumed to
be a comment and will be ignored.
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr auth_getval 3
.Sh BUGS
Simplistic.
.Sh AUTHORS
.An Jordan Hubbard