Cakephp: Impossible to escape `.` in Configure::read() and Configure::write()

[bancer]

This is a (multiple allowed):

• [x] bug
• [x] enhancement

• [x] feature-discussion (RFC)

• CakePHP Version: 2.9.7.

• Platform and Target: Linux, MySQL, Apache.

What you did

What happened

Configure::read('Session.ini') returns an arrray

array(
    ...
    'session.use_cookies' => (int) 1,
    ...
)

but
Configure::read('Session.ini.session.use_cookies') returns null,
Configure::read('Session.ini.session\.use_cookies') returns null too.

The same situation with write() - Configure::write('Session.ini.session.use_cookies', 0); does not change the existing value but creates a new 'session' array.

What you expected to happen

I would expect Configure::read('Session.ini.session\.use_cookies') to return an existing value and Configure::write('Session.ini.session\.use_cookies', 0) to overwrite the existing value.

[markstory]

Hash::get() doesn't support keys with . in them, and I'm not sure it should. Adding complexity to handle rare scenarios like this.

[ADmad]

It's doesn't take much effort to fetch $iniVals = Configure::read('Session.ini') modify the array and write it again Configure::write('Session.ini', $iniVals). So I agree with @markstory it's not worth adding extra complexity to Hash::get() for such edge cases.