JeremyVV · October 23, 2025 17:13 · Oct 23, 2025
diff --git a/load_config.sh b/load_config.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+load_config() {
+    local config_file="$1"
+
+    # Check if the file exists and is readable
+    if [[ ! -r "$config_file" ]]; then
+        echo "Error: Configuration file $config_file not found or unreadable." >&2
+        return 1
+    fi
+
+    # NOTE: This function only reads simple KEY=value pairs. 
+    # It does not support shell arrays (KEY=(v1 v2)) or associative arrays (hashes).
+
+    while IFS= read -r line; do
+        # Clean up leading/trailing whitespace on the whole line
+        line="${line#"${line%%[![:space:]]*}"}"
+        line="${line%"${line##*[![:space:]]*}"}"
+
+        # Skip empty lines or lines starting with '#' (comments)
+        if [[ -z "$line" || "$line" =~ ^# ]]; then
+            continue
+        fi
+
+        # Split key and value on the first '=' occurrence
+        key="${line%%=*}"
+        value="${line#*=}"
+
+        # Clean up whitespace on the key and value
+        key="${key#"${key%%[![:space:]]*}"}"
+        value="${value#"${value%%[![:space:]]*}"}" 
+
+        # Verify the key is a valid Bash variable name
+        if ! [[ "$key" =~ ^[a-zA-Z_][a-zA-Z0-9_]*$ ]]; then
+            echo "Warning: Invalid variable name '$key'. Skipping." >&2
+            continue
+        fi
+
+        # Safely quote the value to prevent command injection
+        local safe_value
+        printf -v safe_value '%q' "$value"
+
+        # Assign the variable in the calling script's scope
+        eval "$key=$safe_value"
+
+    done < "$config_file"
+}