The GetProfileSection function retrieves all of the keys and values for the specified section of the WIN.INI file. This function is provided for compatibility with 16-bit Windows-based applications. Win32-based applications should store initialization information in the registry.
Windows 95: The specified profile section must not exceed 32K.
Windows NT: The specified profile section has no size limit.
DWORD GetProfileSection(
LPCTSTR lpAppName, // address of section name
LPTSTR lpReturnedString, // address of return buffer
DWORD nSize // size of return buffer
);
Windows 95: The maximum buffer size is 32,767 characters.
The return value specifies the number of characters copied to the specified buffer, not including the terminating null character. If the buffer is not large enough to contain all the keys and values associated with the named section, the return value is equal to the length specified by nSize minus two.
The format of the returned keys and values is one or more null-terminated strings, followed by a final null character. Each string has the following form:
key=string
The GetProfileSection function is not case-sensitive; the strings can be a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters.
This operation is atomic; no updates to the WIN.INI file are allowed while the keys and values for the section are being copied to the buffer.
Windows NT: Calls to profile functions may be mapped to the registry instead of to the initialization files. This mapping occurs when the initialization file and section are specified in the registry under the following keys:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\
Windows NT\CurrentVersion\IniFileMapping
When the operation has been mapped, the GetProfileSection function retrieves information from the registry, not from the initialization file; the change in the storage location has no effect on the function's behavior.
The Win32 profile functions (Get/WriteProfile*, Get/WritePrivateProfile*) use the following steps to locate initialization information:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\
Windows NT\CurrentVersion\IniFileMapping\myfile.ini
When looking at values in the registry that specify other registry locations, there are several prefixes that change the behavior of the .INI file mapping:
Registry Overview, Registry Functions, GetPrivateProfileSection, WriteProfileSection