YINI-CLI

Command-line tool for validating, inspecting, and converting YINI configuration files to JSON.

YINI is an INI-inspired configuration format designed for clarity and predictability. It supports nesting, comments, and a formally defined syntax, so configuration files stay easy to read and reason about as they grow.

This tool is useful if you work with human-edited configuration files and want predictable structure without indentation-based rules.

Quick Start

Requirements

YINI CLI requires Node.js v20 or later.

(It has also been tested with Node.js v13+, but v20+ is recommended for best compatibility.)

Installation

1. Install it globally from npm — (requires Node.js)
   Open your terminal and run:

   npm install -g yini-cli

2. Verify installation
   Run this in your terminal:

   yini --version

   Should print the version (e.g., 1.0.0).

   Then you may try:

   yini --help

   Should show you the CLI help for YINI.

3. Test functionality
   Create a simple test file, for example: config.yini:

   ^ App
     name = "My App Title"
     version = "1.2.3"
     pageSize = 25
     darkTheme = off

   Then run:

   yini parse config.yini

   Expected result, your CLI should output a parsed version of the config and output something similar to:

   {
       App: {
           name: 'My App Title',
           version: '1.2.3',
           pageSize: 25,
           darkTheme: false
       }
   }    

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Typical use cases

• Validating configuration files during development or CI.
• Inspecting and debugging structured configuration.
• Converting YINI files to JSON for tooling and automation.

🙋‍♀️ Why YINI?

• Indentation-independent structure: The YINI config format is indentation-independent, meaning any space or tab never changes meaning.
• Explicit nesting: It uses clear header markers (^, ^^, ^^^) to define hierarchy (like in Markdown), without long dotted keys.
• Multiple data types: Supports boolean literals (true / false, Yes / No, etc), numbers, arrays (lists), and JS-style objects natively, with explicit string syntax.
• Comments support: YINI supports multiple comment styles (#, //, /* ... */, and ;) allowing one to document config directly in the file.
• Predictable parsing rules: Well-defined rules with optional strict and lenient modes, for different use-requirements.

Usage of command yini

Usage: yini [options] [command]

CLI for parsing and validating YINI config files.

Options:
  -v, --version              Output the version number.
  -i, --info                 Show extended information (details, links, etc.).
  -s, --strict               Enable strict parsing mode.
  -f, --force                Continue parsing even if errors occur.
  -q, --quiet                Reduce output (show only errors).
  --silent                   Suppress all output (even errors, exit code only).
  -h, --help                 Display help for command.

Commands:
  parse [options] <file>     Parse a YINI file (*.yini) and print the result.
  validate [options] <file>  Checks if the file can be parsed as valid YINI.
  info                       Deprecated: Use `yini --info` or `yini -i` instead.
  help [command]             Display help for command.

Examples:
  $ yini parse config.yini
  $ yini validate --strict config.yini
  $ yini parse config.yini --pretty --output out.json

For help with a specific command, use -h or --help. For example:
  $ yini validate --help

Quick Look at YINI

Here's a small example showing YINI structure and comments:

    // This is a comment in YINI

    ^ App                      // Defines section (group) "App" 
      name     = 'My Title'    // Keys and values are written as key = value
      items    = 25
      darkMode = true          // "ON" and "YES" works too

        // Sub-section of the "App" section
        ^^ Special
           primaryColor = #336699   // Hex number format
           isCaching    = false     // "OFF" and "NO" works too
    
    # This is a comment too.

The above YINI converted to a JS object:

{
    App: {
        name: 'My Title',
        items: 25,
        darkMode: true,
        Special: { 
            primaryColor: 3368601,
            isCaching: false
        }
    }
}

In JSON:

{
   "App":{
      "name":"My Title",
      "items":25,
      "darkMode":true,
      "Special":{
         "primaryColor":3368601,
         "isCaching":false
      }
   }
}

That's it!

• ▶️ Link to examples/ files.
• ▶️ Link to Demo Apps with complete basic usage.

📤 Output Modes for yini parse

The parse command supports multiple output styles:

| Command Example | Output Style | Description | |----------------------------------------------------|----------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | yini parse config.yini | JS-style object | Uses Node’s util.inspect — human-readable, shows types, nesting, etc. | | yini parse config.yini --pretty | Pretty JSON | Formatted and indented with JSON.stringify(obj, null, 4). | | yini parse config.yini --json | Compact JSON | Compact and machine-friendly JSON.stringify(obj). | | yini parse config.yini --output out.txt | File (JS-style) | Default style, written to specified file. | | yini parse config.yini --pretty --output out.json| File (Pretty JSON) | Formatted JSON written to file. |

💡 Tip: You can combine --output with any style flag to control both formatting and destination.

🛠 Roadmap

Areas of planned and possible future expansion:

1. Improve existing commands — Continued functionality improvements, better diagnostics, and expanded QA for parse and validate and their options.
2. Command format: Pretty-print or normalize a .yini file.
3. Command lint: Stricter stylistic checks (like validate, but opinionated).
4. Command diff: Compare two YINI files and show structural/config differences.
5. Command convert: Convert a JSON or XML file into YINI format.

Links

• ➡️ YINI Parser on npm
  Install and view package details.

• ➡️ YINI Project
  YINI home on gitHub.

Contribution & Involvement

Interested in contributing or trying ideas? Issues, feedback, and experiments are welcome — even small ones.

License

This project is licensed under the Apache-2.0 license - see the LICENSE file for details.

In this project on GitHub, the libs directory contains third party software and each is licensed under its own license which is described in its own license file under the respective directory under libs.

If you found this useful, a GitHub star helps the project a lot ⭐

^YINI ≡

YINI — Clear, Structured Configuration Files.

yini-lang.org · YINI on GitHub