winereg

winereg

Rust library for parsing, writing, diffing, patching, and scripting Wine registry files.

Crate Overview

• Parse Wine .reg text/files into an in-memory tree.
• Serialize back to .reg (atomic file write support).
• Compare registries and export/parse text diffs.
• Apply diffs/patches with configurable options.
• Lightweight DSL for building or modifying registries.

Add to your code (crate name winereg):

use winereg::*;

Core Types

• KeyNode / RegistryKey
  • RegistryKey::create_root()
  • RegistryKey::create_subkey(&parent, name) / create_key_recursive(&parent, path)
  • RegistryKey::find_key(&root, path) -> Option<KeyNode>
  • set_value(name, RegistryValue); try_delete_value(name) -> Result<()>
  • delete_subkey(parent, name, recursive) -> bool; try_delete_subkey(parent, name, recursive) -> Result<()>
  • Snapshots to avoid borrow issues: snapshot_subkeys(&KeyNode), snapshot_values(&KeyNode)
  • get_full_path(&KeyNode) returns the joined registry path.
• Values
  • RegistryValue::new(name, RegistryValueData::*)
  • Variants: String, ExpandString, MultiString(Vec<String>), Dword(u32), Qword(u64), Binary(Vec<u8>, u32)
  • Common type constants: REG_SZ, REG_EXPAND_SZ, REG_MULTI_SZ, REG_DWORD, REG_QWORD, REG_BINARY

Parsing & Writing (RegistryEditor)

• RegistryEditor::load_from_file(path) -> Result<LoadResult, ParseError>
• RegistryEditor::load_from_text(text) -> Result<LoadResult, ParseError>
• RegistryEditor::write_to_file_with_options(key, path, EditorOptions) -> io::Result<()>
• RegistryEditor::write_to_file_default(key, path) -> io::Result<()>
• RegistryEditor::write_to_string_with_options(key, EditorOptions) -> String
• RegistryEditor::write_to_string_default(key) -> String
• EditorOptions { relative_base: String, architecture: Architecture } (Default: empty base + Unknown)
• Architecture: Unknown, Win32, Win64

Diff & Patch

• Compare: RegistryComparator.compare_registries(left, right) -> DiffResult
• Text diff export/parse:
  • TextDiffExporter.export(&diff, from: Option<&str>, to: Option<&str>) -> String
  • TextDiffParser.parse(text) -> Result<DiffResult, String>
• Apply patch:
  • RegistryPatcher.apply_patch(target, &diff, PatchOptions) -> PatchResult
  • PatchOptions { ignore_failures, create_missing_keys, overwrite_existing_values, delete_empty_keys, validate_before_apply } (Default: ignore_failures=false, create_missing_keys=true, overwrite_existing_values=true, delete_empty_keys=true, validate_before_apply=false)
  • PatchResult { applied, failed, ignore_failures }
    • is_success() respects ignore_failures
    • applied_count(), failed_count(), total_count()
• Convenience on KeyNode via RegistryKeyExt:
  • apply_patch(&self, &DiffResult)
  • apply_patch_with(&self, &DiffResult, PatchOptions)
  • apply_text_patch(&self, text, options) -> Result<PatchResult, String>
  • compare_with(&self, other) -> DiffResult
  • export_diff_text(&self, other, from, to) -> String

DSL (optional)

• registry(|ctx| { ... }) -> RegistryResult
  • Set ctx.relative_base, ctx.architecture
  • ctx.key("PATH", |k| { ... }), ctx.root(|k| { ... })
• RegistryKeyDsl helpers: value, dword, qword, binary, expand_string, multi_string, delete_value, delete_key(recursive), replace_key, update_time
• Mutating existing registry: modify_registry(registry_result, |k| { ... })

Quick Examples

Load, tweak, save:

use rustregedit::*;

let loaded = RegistryEditor::load_from_file("user.reg")?;
let root = loaded.root_key.clone();
let key = RegistryKey::create_key_recursive(&root, "Software\\MyApp");
key.borrow_mut().set_value(
    "Version",
    RegistryValue::new("Version", RegistryValueData::String("2.0".into()))
);
RegistryEditor::write_to_file_default(&root, "user_out.reg")?;

Compare and patch:

let base = RegistryEditor::load_from_file("user.reg")?.root_key;
let desired = RegistryEditor::load_from_file("user_new.reg")?.root_key;
let diff = RegistryComparator.compare_registries(&base, &desired);
let result = RegistryPatcher.apply_patch(&base, &diff, PatchOptions::default());
assert!(result.is_success());

Text diff round-trip:

let diff = RegistryComparator.compare_registries(&RegistryKey::create_root(), &desired);
let text = TextDiffExporter.export(&diff, Some("old.reg"), Some("new.reg"));
let parsed = TextDiffParser.parse(&text)?;
let apply_res = RegistryPatcher.apply_patch(&RegistryKey::create_root(), &parsed, PatchOptions::default());
assert!(apply_res.is_success());

Text Diff Format (Readable Patch)

The text diff is a compact, section-based format.

Anatomy

• Header lines:
  • # Registry Patch File
  • Optional: # Generated: <timestamp>
  • Optional: # FROM: <file1> / # TO: <file2>
• Sections:
  • [ROOT] for the virtual root (empty path)
  • [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE], [Software\Classes], etc.
• Inside each section, change lines:
  • Key add: +key:<Name>
  • Key delete: -key:<Name>
  • Key properties:
    • ~className:<old>-><new> (values quoted when needed)
    • ~isSymlink:false->true
    • ~isVolatile:false->true
  • Value add/delete:
    • +"Name"=<typed payload>
    • -"Name"=<typed payload>
  • Value modify:
    • ~"Name"=<old typed payload>-><new typed payload>
• Value payload encodings:
  • String: string:"text" (escapes: \", \\, \n, \r, \t, \0)
  • Expand string: expand_string:"text"
  • Multi-string: multi_string:["a","b","c"]
  • Dword: dword:00112233 (hex, 8 digits)
  • Qword: qword:0011223344556677 (hex, 16 digits)
  • Binary:
    • hex:01,02,ff (REG_BINARY)
    • hex(ffff1003):01,02 (explicit type in hex)

Example Patch

# Registry Patch File
# FROM: old.reg
# TO: new.reg

[ROOT]
+key:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE]
~className:"OldClass"->"NewClass"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software]
+"StringValue"=string:"hello\nworld"
+"DwordValue"=dword:0000002a
~"Mode"=string:"old"->string:"new"
-"Obsolete"=dword:00000001

Parsing & Applying

• Parse: let diff = TextDiffParser.parse(text)?;
• Apply: RegistryPatcher.apply_patch(target, &diff, options);
  • PatchOptions control behavior (ignore_failures, create_missing_keys, overwrite_existing_values, delete_empty_keys, validate_before_apply).