The task is to read a configuration file in standard configuration file format,
and set variables accordingly.

For this task, we have a configuration file as follows:

# This is a configuration file in standard configuration file format
#
# Lines beginning with a hash or a semicolon are ignored by the application
# program. Blank lines are also ignored by the application program.

# This is the fullname parameter
FULLNAME Foo Barber

# This is a favourite fruit
FAVOURITEFRUIT banana

# This is a boolean that should be set
NEEDSPEELING

# This boolean is commented out
; SEEDSREMOVED

# Configuration option names are not case sensitive, but configuration parameter
# data is case sensitive and may be preserved by the application program.

# An optional equals sign can be used to separate configuration parameter data
# from the option name. This is dropped by the parser. 

# A configuration option may take multiple parameters separated by commas.
# Leading and trailing whitespace around parameter names and parameter data fields
# are ignored by the application program.

OTHERFAMILY Rhu Barber, Harry Barber



For the task we need to set four variables according to the configuration entries as follows:

fullname = Foo Barber
favouritefruit = banana
needspeeling = true
seedsremoved = false


We also have an option that contains multiple parameters. These may be stored in an array.

 otherfamily(1) = Rhu Barber
 otherfamily(2) = Harry Barber


Related tasks
 Update a configuration file


function readconf(file)
    vars = Dict()
    for line in eachline(file)
        line = strip(line)
        if !isempty(line) && !startswith(line, '#') && !startswith(line, ';')
            fspace  = searchindex(line, " ")
            if fspace == 0
                vars[Symbol(lowercase(line))] = true
            else
                vname, line = Symbol(lowercase(line[1:fspace-1])), line[fspace+1:end]
                value = ',' ∈ line ? strip.(split(line, ',')) : line
                vars[vname] = value
            end
        end
    end
    for (vname, value) in vars
        eval(:($vname = $value))
    end
    return vars
end
 
readconf("test.conf")
 
@show fullname favouritefruit needspeeling otherfamily