Basic awk script that can be used to parse a config similar to the INI layout (var = val)

parse-ini.awk

#! /usr/local/bin/awk -f
# Solution by Ed Morton (http://stackoverflow.com/a/43946907/5154806)
# Example: echo -e "personal.name.first=John\npersonal.name.last\t=Doe\npersonal.other.dob=\t05/07/87\npersonal.contact.phone\t=\t602123456\npersonal.contact.email\t = \tjohn.doe@idk\nemployment.jobs.1\t\t=    Company One\nemployment.jobs.2 \t =Company Two\nemployment.jobs.3\t= Company Three" | ./tst.awk

BEGIN { 
  FS="[\t ]*=[\t ]*" 
}
{
  split($1,d,/\./)
  data[d[1]][d[2]][d[3]] = $2
}
END {
  for (x in data)
    for (y in data[x])
      for (z in data[x][y])
        print x, y, z, "->", data[x][y][z]
}