It understands files such as:

```yaml
## global definitions
global:
  debug: yes
  verbose: no
  debugging:
    detailed: no
    header: "debugging started"

## output
output:
   file: "yes"
```
 
Which, when parsed using:

```bash
parse_yaml sample.yml
```

will output: 

```yaml
global_debug="yes"
global_verbose="no"
global_debugging_detailed="no"
global_debugging_header="debugging started"
output_file="yes"
```

it also understands yaml files, generated by ruby which may include ruby symbols, like:

```yaml
---
:global:
  :debug: 'yes'
  :verbose: 'no'
  :debugging:
    :detailed: 'no'
    :header: debugging started
  :output: 'yes'
```

and will output the same as in the previous example.

typical use within a script is:

```yaml
eval $(parse_yaml sample.yml)
```

parse_yaml accepts a prefix argument so that imported settings all have a common prefix (which will reduce the risk of namespace collisions).

```bash
parse_yaml sample.yml "CONF_"
```

yields:

    CONF_global_debug="yes"
    CONF_global_verbose="no"
    CONF_global_debugging_detailed="no"
    CONF_global_debugging_header="debugging started"
    CONF_output_file="yes"

Note that previous settings in a file can be referred to by later settings:

```yaml
## global definitions
global:
  debug: yes
  verbose: no
  debugging:
    detailed: no
    header: "debugging started"

## output
output:
   debug: $global_debug
```

Another nice usage is to first parse a defaults file and then the user settings, which works since the latter settings overrides the first ones:

```bash
    eval $(parse_yaml defaults.yml)
    eval $(parse_yaml project.yml)
```