Apostrophe breaks syntax highlighting for Ini files

[aeschli]

From @thijsvandien on March 2, 2017 17:13

• VSCode Version: Code 1.10.1 (653f8733dd5a5c43d66d7168b4701f94d72b62e5, 2017-03-02T00:27:09.350Z)
• OS Version: Darwin x64 15.6.0
• Extensions:

Extension	Author	Version
python	donjayamanne	0.5.9
vim	vscodevim	0.5.3

---

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Create an ini file where a text value contains an apostrophe in the middle, e.g.:

[Sample]
SomeKey=Someone's Value
SomeOtherKey=42

2. Note that from the apostrophe onward, the rest of the file is considered a string.

Different ini implementations have their own interpretations of values. E.g., Windows does not consider the apostrophes of a quoted value part of that value. I'm not aware of the exact rules, but at least the current highlighting behavior is wrong. I think it would be better to stick to the universally valid rules – sections, keys and values – and not to consider apostrophes special at all.

Copied from original issue: microsoft/vscode#21804

[myfonj]

This issue is addressed in PR #1 from 2015, maybe time has come to finally merge at least parts of it?

[jmiguel-hdez]

can PR #1 from 2015 be merged? or perhaps some other appropriate fix for syntax highlighting

[geerligs]

I would like to have this issue solved as well. Seems a fix is available (see #3 (comment))

[diatomicDisaster]

This is a really simple issue, no idea why it's been open for 5 years. A fix was provided 7 years ago, can it please be merged?

[edgetools]

It's 2024 and we're likely to see vscode replaced before this gets merged 😆

[ExtReMLapin]

MERGE IT ALREADY

[Holf]

Until this does get fixed, a workaround to stop your entire .ini file losing its formatting is to immediately add a comment containing the closing ':

[section_1]
this_id = 281474976818284
that_id = 281474977838819
string_with_apostrophe = Mark's Keyboard Repair
# '

[section_2]
this_id = 281474976816734
that_id = 281474978538200
string_with_apostrophe = Pepper's Ghost
# '

Somewhat entertainingly, on writing out the example .ini file content for this comment I see the GitHub comment parser has exactly the same issue.