With function parse_ini_stringM() below you can:
- fix unvalued fields ('key' (invalid) ==> 'key=' (OK) )
- fix unquotted values with equal sign '=' ('key=value_part1=value_part2' ==> 'key="value_part1=value_part2"')
- fix (solve) multidimensional arrays (makes 'key[key1][key2]=value' valid)

function parse_ini_stringM() on github https://gist.github.com/msegu/c43a871c5a874a1d9bff978b448a0aa4 (here is too long)

// Example:

$ini = '[a]
b
c=d
e=';

var_export(parse_ini_string($ini, TRUE)); /* array (
  'a' => 
  array (
    'c' => 'd',
    'e' => '',
  ),
)
*/

$ini .= '
f[g][2]=h
f[g][i]=j
f[g][][]=k
m=n=o';

var_export(parse_ini_string($ini, TRUE)); // false

var_export(parse_ini_stringM($ini, TRUE)); /* array (
  'a' => 
  array (
    'b' => '',
    'c' => 'd',
    'e' => '',
    'f' => 
    array (
      'g' => 
      array (
        2 => 'h',
        'i' => 'j',
        3 => 
        array (
          0 => 'k',
        ),
      ),
    ),
    'm' => 'n=o',
  ),
)
*/