PRB: Updating Multiple Device= Lines in SYSTEM.INI

ID: Q107695

3.00 3.10 WINDOWS kbprg

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) 3.1

SYMPTOMS

When there is more than one entry with the same name under a section in an .INI file, WritePrivateProfileString() and WriteProfileString() can update only the first specified entry in the section.

STATUS

This behavior is by design.

MORE INFORMATION

For example, in the [386Enh] section of the SYSTEM.INI file, there are multiple "device=" lines. If you want to add a new device= line or update one of the device= lines other than the first device= entry, you cannot use WritePrivateProfileString(). For example, the following call


   WritePrivateProfileString("386Enh", "device", "drvname.drv",
   "SYSTEM.INI");

will only replace the first device= statement with DRVNAME.DRV, instead of adding a new device= line. The reason is that the Windows .INI file application programming interfaces (APIs) in the Windows 3.1 SDK work only on unique entries in a given section of the .INI file.

There are couple of options available to work around this situation:

Open, parse, modify, and save the .INI file in your application. Note, that although Windows 3.1 supports direct file I/O to the INI files, Windows 3.0 does not. Moreover, Windows caches INI files, and therefore if you modify a .INI file, the disk file is updated, however, the cache is not. To update the cache, call WriteProfileString(NULL, NULL, NULL), which forces a flush of the cache.

-or-

Win32 applications can use the APIs that support the multiple "entry=" lines in a single section of a .INI file. For example, you could use the WriteProfileSection() and WritePrivateProfileSection() functions in the Win32 API.

-or-

Use the VxD services that WIN386.EXE uses when it loads all the devices listed in the device= lines of the [386Enh] section in SYSTEM.INI file. The services that the VxDs provide are documented in the Windows Device Driver Kit (DDK).

Additional query words: 3.10 3.00

Keywords : kb16bitonly kbSDKPlatform kbSysSettings
Version : WINDOWS:3.1
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbprb