This document compares Dapplo.Ini (this library) with the INI-file subsystem of the older Dapplo.Config library. The goal is to identify features that exist in one library but not the other so that the most useful ones can be ported or consciously omitted.

Dapplo.Config.Ini exposes AutoSaveInterval (default 1 000 ms). When dirty, the container flushes itself on each tick.

Dapplo.Ini now supports this natively:

var config = IniConfigRegistry.ForFile("app.ini")
    .AddSearchPath(".")
    .AutoSaveInterval(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1))   // check every second
    .RegisterSection<IAppSettings>(new AppSettingsImpl())
    .Build();

The internal System.Threading.Timer calls config.HasPendingChanges() on each tick and only writes to disk when at least one section is dirty. The timer is automatically stopped when config.Dispose() is called.

Dapplo.Config.Ini hooks AppDomain.CurrentDomain.ProcessExit when SaveOnExit = true.

Dapplo.Ini now supports this natively:

var config = IniConfigRegistry.ForFile("app.ini")
    .AddSearchPath(".")
    .SaveOnExit()
    .RegisterSection<IAppSettings>(new AppSettingsImpl())
    .Build();
// config.Dispose() unregisters the ProcessExit handler automatically.

The handler is registered on AppDomain.CurrentDomain.ProcessExit and unregistered when the IniConfig instance is disposed. This works on both .NET Framework and .NET.

Dapplo.Config.Ini tracks whether a section has been modified since the last read or write via HasChanges().

Dapplo.Ini now supports this natively:

if (config.HasPendingChanges())
    config.Save();

// Or per section:
var section = config.GetSection<IAppSettings>();
if (section.HasChanges)
    Console.WriteLine("Section has unsaved changes.");

• bool IIniSection.HasChanges — set inside IniSectionBase.SetRawValue, which is invoked by every property setter in the generated class.
• bool IniConfig.HasPendingChanges() — returns true when at least one registered section is dirty.
• Both flags are cleared automatically by IniConfig.Save() (after a successful write) and by IniConfig.Reload() (after the fresh data is applied).
• The initial load in IniConfigBuilder.Build() also clears the flags, so freshly built configurations start in a clean state.

The parser and writer in Dapplo.Ini now accept an optional Encoding parameter, and IniConfigBuilder exposes WithEncoding(Encoding):

var config = IniConfigRegistry.ForFile("legacy.ini")
    .AddSearchPath(".")
    .WithEncoding(Encoding.Latin1)
    .RegisterSection<IAppSettings>(new AppSettingsImpl())
    .Build();

When WithEncoding is not called the behaviour is unchanged: UTF-8 is used for both reading and writing.

Dapplo.Config.Ini automatically looks for appname-defaults.ini and appname-constants.ini alongside the main file. Dapplo.Ini requires explicit AddDefaultsFile / AddConstantsFile calls.

Possible addition to IniConfigBuilder:

// Automatically add "<fileName without ext>-defaults.ini" and
// "<fileName without ext>-constants.ini" from the same directories.
public IniConfigBuilder UseDefaultPostfixConvention() { … }

Dapplo.Ini is the modern successor to Dapplo.Config.Ini, offering significantly better AOT/trim support, no runtime proxy overhead, and a richer feature set for layered loading, external sources, and UI data binding.

The most impactful gaps have been closed:

1. ✅ Auto-save timer — AutoSaveInterval(TimeSpan) on IniConfigBuilder.
2. ✅ Save on process exit — SaveOnExit() on IniConfigBuilder.
3. ✅ Change tracking (HasChanges / HasPendingChanges) — prerequisite for auto-save and efficient save-only-when-dirty behaviour.
4. ✅ Configurable encoding — WithEncoding(Encoding) on IniConfigBuilder.
5. ✅ Async I/O — BuildAsync/SaveAsync/ReloadAsync on IniConfigBuilder/IniConfig. See Async-Support.

All other gaps are either intentionally omitted (proxy model, Dapplo.Log coupling, fixed postfix convention) or superseded by new Dapplo.Ini features.