PHP provides a parse_ini_file() function to read INI files.

This component provides the following benefits over the built-in function:

- allows one to write INI files - classes can be used with dependency injection and mocked in unit tests - throws exceptions instead of PHP errors - better type supports: - parses boolean values (true/false, on/off, yes/no) to real PHP booleans (instead of strings "1" and "") - parses null to PHP null (instead of an empty string) - works even if parse_ini_file() or parse_ini_string() is disabled in php.ini by falling back on an alternate implementation (can happen on some shared hosts)