NeoIni 3.4.3

📖 Documentation & Wiki — detailed guides, API reference, and examples

NeoIni

Secure, thread-safe configuration framework for .NET with INI-based persistence — includes AES-256 encryption, SHA-256 integrity checks, hot reload, pluggable providers, and atomic backups.

⚠️ Not a classic INI parser – NeoIni is a configuration management system that uses an extended INI format as its storage layer. Files written in standard mode contain binary headers, checksums, and encryption metadata, making them unsuitable for direct manual editing (use Human Mode for hand-edited configs).

dotnet add package NeoIni

• Package: nuget.org/packages/NeoIni
• Version: 3.4.2 | .NET 5+ | .NET Standard 2.0
• Developer: Lonewolf239

Features

Quick Start

Creating an instance

using NeoIni;

// Plain
NeoIniDocument document = new("config.ini");

// Auto-encryption (machine-bound)
NeoIniDocument encrypted = new("config.ini", EncryptionType.Auto);

// Custom password (portable between machines)
NeoIniDocument portable = new("config.ini", "MySecretPass123");

// Async
NeoIniDocument document = await NeoIniDocument.CreateAsync("config.ini", cancellationToken: ct);

Reading & writing values

// Write
document.SetValue("Database", "Host", "localhost");
document.SetValue("Database", "Port", 5432);

// Read with typed defaults
string host = document.GetValue("Database", "Host", "127.0.0.1");
int    port = document.GetValue("Database", "Port", 3306);

// Read without side effects (no AutoAdd, no file modification)
if (document.TryGetValue("Game", "Level", out int level))
{
    /* use level */
}
else level = 1;

// Async
await document.SetValueAsync("Database", "Host", "localhost");
string host = await document.GetValueAsync("Database", "Host", "127.0.0.1", ct);

• Missing sections/keys return defaultValue; with UseAutoAdd enabled the key is created automatically.
• Supports enum, DateTime, and any IConvertible type via invariant-culture parsing.

Section & key management

document.AddSection("Cache");
document.RemoveKey("Cache", "OldKey");
document.RenameSection("Cache", "AppCache");

string[] sections = document.GetAllSections();
string[] keys     = document.GetAllKeys("AppCache");
bool exists       = document.SectionExists("AppCache");

Search

var results = document.Search("token");
foreach (var r in results)
    Console.WriteLine($"[{r.Section}] {r.Key} = {r.Value}");

File operations

document.SaveFile();
document.Reload();
document.DeleteFile();
document.DeleteFileWithData();

Options & presets

document.UseAutoSave = true;
document.AutoSaveInterval = 3;    // save every 3 writes
document.UseAutoBackup = true;
document.UseAutoAdd = true;
document.UseChecksum = true;
document.SaveOnDispose = true;
document.AllowEmptyValues = true;
document.UseShielding = true;

Or use built-in presets: NeoIniOptions.Default, Safe, Performance, ReadOnly, BufferedAutoSave(n).

Events

document.Saved            += (_, _) => Console.WriteLine("Saved");
document.Loaded           += (_, _) => Console.WriteLine("Loaded");
document.KeyChanged       += (_, e) => Console.WriteLine($"[{e.Section}] {e.Key} → {e.Value}");
document.KeyAdded         += (_, e) => Console.WriteLine($"[{e.Section}] +{e.Key}");
document.ChecksumMismatch += (_, _) => Console.WriteLine("Checksum mismatch!");
document.Error            += (_, e) => Console.WriteLine($"Error: {e.Exception.Message}");

Encryption & migration

// Auto-encryption — key is derived from user/machine/domain + per-file salt
NeoIniDocument document = new("secure.ini", EncryptionType.Auto);

// Retrieve password to migrate to another machine
string password = document.GetEncryptionPassword();

// On the new machine
NeoIniDocument migrated = new("secure.ini", password);

Disposal

using NeoIniDocument document = new("config.ini");
// SaveFile() is called automatically if SaveOnDispose is true
// After disposal — ObjectDisposedException on any access

Advanced Features

• Attribute-based mapping & source generator (1.7+) — detailed guide
• Hot-reload (1.7.1+) — usage & caveats
• Human-editable INI mode (1.7.2+) — experimental mode
• Pluggable provider abstraction (1.7.3+) — custom providers
• Pluggable encryption (2.0+) — custom encryption providers

API Reference

Full method, options, and event reference — API.md

Commercial License

NeoIni is released under the GPLv3 license. If this license does not meet your requirements (e.g., for proprietary or commercial software), a commercial license is available.

The commercial license grants you the right to use NeoIni in proprietary applications without the need to disclose your source code. It also includes priority support and access to private updates.

Pricing:

All licenses are perpetual (one-time payment). Annual support and update subscriptions are available for 20% of the license price.

To purchase or inquire about custom licensing, please contact the developer directly:

• Telegram: @an1onime
• Email: neoinilicense@gmail.com

Prices are in USD and subject to change.

Philosophy

Black Box Design — all internal logic is hidden behind the simple public API of NeoIniDocument. You work only with methods and events, without worrying about implementation details.

Standard Mode vs Human Mode – In standard mode, NeoIni owns the configuration file completely: it adds a binary header, checksums, and optional encryption. This guarantees integrity but makes the file unsuitable for manual editing (a warning header is inserted). For human‑edited INI files, use the Human Mode (experimental) which disables checksums and encryption, preserving comments and formatting.

Thus, NeoIni is not a replacement for lightweight INI parsers – it is a robust configuration subsystem that happens to serialize to a text format that resembles INI.