Boost property tree ini parsing gives error if any comment is appended to key-value

Question

I have a working example program which parses ini formatted data with boost property_tree. When I append a comment to the key-value pairs I get coredump. I have searched any comment trim function on property_tree but cannot find anything.

The working program:

static std::string inidata =
R"(
    # comment

    [SECTION1]  
    key1 = 15
    key2=val        
)";

void read_data(std::istream &is)
{
    using boost::property_tree::ptree;

    ptree pt;

    read_ini(is, pt);

    boost::optional<uint32_t>    sect1_key1 = pt.get_optional<uint32_t>(ptree::path_type("SECTION1/key1", '/'));
    boost::optional<std::string> sect1_key2 = pt.get_optional<std::string>(ptree::path_type("SECTION1/key2", '/'));

    std::cout << "SECTION1.key1: " << *sect1_key1 << std::endl;
    std::cout << "SECTION1.key2: " << *sect1_key2 << std::endl;
}

The comment appended config:

static std::string inidata =
R"(
    # comment

    [SECTION1]  
    key1 = 15           # COMMENT ADDED!
    key2=val        
)";

The core dump output:

/usr/local/include/boost/optional/optional.hpp:992: boost::optional<T>::reference_type boost::optional<T>::get() [with T = unsigned int; boost::optional<T>::reference_type = unsigned int&]: Assertion `this->is_initialized()' failed.
Aborted (core dumped)

It's hard to tell reading the doc, but it's possible that the property-tree INI parser doesn't support in-line comments. The actual INI spec is [vague](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/INI_file#Comments_2) on this point. — aruisdante, Oct 13 '14 at 13:56

sehe · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-13T17:36:58.120

2

The comment style **is not supported*.

You can see this by moving the comment on the text value, which results in:

SECTION1.key1: 15
SECTION1.key2: val  # woah

Tester that shows that # is really only special in the first non-whitespace column: Live On Coliru

#include <boost/property_tree/ini_parser.hpp>
#include <iostream>

static std::string inidata =
R"(
    # comment

    [SECTION1]  
    key1 = 15
    key2=val  # woah       
    k#ey3=whoops
)";

using boost::property_tree::ptree;

void read_data(std::istream &is)
{

    ptree pt;
    read_ini(is, pt);

    for (auto section : pt)
        for (auto key : section.second)
            std::cout << "DEBUG: " << key.first << "=" << key.second.get_value<std::string>() << "\n";
}

#include <sstream>

int main()
{
    std::istringstream iss(inidata);
    read_data(iss);
}

edited Oct 13 '14 at 17:36

answered Oct 13 '14 at 17:27

sehe

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Thank you. I think seaching comment char either on key and value is manually required (trimming purpose). – taneryilmaz Oct 13 '14 at 18:31
@tyilmaz Either that, or you can read the inifile some other way: [Boost Program Options _does_ strip trailing comments](http://stackoverflow.com/q/6578339/85371) or [this inifile parser I wrote in Boost Spirit](http://stackoverflow.com/a/8365427/85371) (you can define `POSITION_INFO` as `0`) – sehe Oct 13 '14 at 18:41

Boost property tree ini parsing gives error if any comment is appended to key-value

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