You may want, in some very special cases, to parse multi-dimensional array with N levels in your ini file. Something like setting[data][config][debug] = true will result in an error (expected "=").
Here's a little function to match this, using dots (customizable).
<?php
function parse_ini_file_multi($file, $process_sections = false, $scanner_mode = INI_SCANNER_NORMAL) {
$explode_str = '.';
$escape_char = "'";
$data = parse_ini_file($file, $process_sections, $scanner_mode);
    if (!$process_sections) {
$data = array($data);
    }
    foreach ($data as $section_key => $section) {
foreach ($section as $key => $value) {
            if (strpos($key, $explode_str)) {
                if (substr($key, 0, 1) !== $escape_char) {
$sub_keys = explode($explode_str, $key);
$subs =& $data[$section_key];
                    foreach ($sub_keys as $sub_key) {
                        if (!isset($subs[$sub_key])) {
$subs[$sub_key] = [];
                        }
$subs =& $subs[$sub_key];
                    }
$subs = $value;
unset($data[$section_key][$key]);
                }
else {
$new_key = trim($key, $escape_char);
$data[$section_key][$new_key] = $value;
                    unset($data[$section_key][$key]);
                }
            }
        }
    }
    if (!$process_sections) {
$data = $data[0];
    }
    return $data;
}
?>
The following file:
<?php
?>
will result in:
<?php
parse_ini_file_multi('file.ini', true);
Array
(
    [normal] => Array
        (
            [foo] => bar
[foo.with.dots] => 1
)
    [array] => Array
        (
            [foo] => Array
                (
                    [0] => 1
[1] => 2
)
        )
    [dictionary] => Array
        (
            [foo] => Array
                (
                    [debug] => 
                    [path] => /some/path
)
        )
    [multi] => Array
        (
            [foo] => Array
                (
                    [data] => Array
                        (
                            [config] => Array
                                (
                                    [debug] => 1
)
                            [password] => 123456
)
                )
        )
)
?>