diff --git a/src/string_utils.cpp b/src/string_utils.cpp
index 78cfc3c..1bfe8a4 100644
--- a/src/string_utils.cpp
+++ b/src/string_utils.cpp
@@ -76,19 +76,27 @@ string sc::file_get_contents(const string& path)
     return {buf.data(), static_cast<string::size_type>(file_len)};
 }
 
-map<string, string> sc::parse_ini_file(const string& path)
+map<string, string> sc::parse_ini_file(const string& path, bool ignore_sections)
 {
     map<string, string> result;
+    string prefix;
     string line;
     ifstream file {path};
-    file.exceptions(/*ios::failbit |*/ ios::badbit); // it seems that getline() will set failbit when confronted with eof immediately
+    file.exceptions(ios::badbit); // it seems that getline() will set failbit when confronted with eof immediately
     while (getline(file, line)) {
-        if (line[0] == '[') continue;
-        vector<string> parts {split(line, "=")};
-        if (parts.size() > 1) {
-            string key {trim(parts[0])};
-            string value {trim(parts[1], " \"")};
-            result[key] = value;
+        if (line[0] == '#') continue; // ignore comments
+        if (line[0] == '[') {
+            if (ignore_sections) continue;
+            regex section {R"(^\[(.*)\])"};
+            smatch m;
+            if (regex_search(line, m, section)) {
+                prefix = string{m[1]} + '.';
+            }
+        }
+        regex key_value_pat {R"(^\s*(.*)\s*=\s*("?)(.*)\2)"};
+        smatch match;
+        if (regex_search(line, match, key_value_pat)) {
+            result[prefix + string{match[1]}] = match[3];
         }
     }
     return result;
diff --git a/src/string_utils.hpp b/src/string_utils.hpp
index 34059f8..df835de 100644
--- a/src/string_utils.hpp
+++ b/src/string_utils.hpp
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ namespace sc {
 
     std::string                         file_get_contents   (const std::string& path);
 
-    std::map<std::string, std::string>  parse_ini_file      (const std::string& path);
+    std::map<std::string, std::string>  parse_ini_file      (const std::string& path, bool ignore_sections = true);
     
     void                                create_dir          (const std::string& path,
                                                              int mode = 0777);