Microsoft KB Archive/107695

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PRB: Updating Multiple Device= Lines in SYSTEM.INI

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Q107695

3.00 3.10 WINDOWS kbprg

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The information in this article applies to:


 * Microsoft Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) 3.1

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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.

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 * 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.

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 * 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

Issue type : kbprb

Technology : kbAudDeveloper kbWin3xSearch kbSDKSearch kbWinSDKSearch kbWinSDK310