yaml-cpp is a YAML parser and emitter in C++ written around the YAML 1.2 spec.

To get a feel for how it can be used, see How To Parse A Document or How to Emit YAML.

The build system is a perhaps a little unconventional, so it's worth explaining on the front page. The library uses CMake to support cross-platform building. In a UNIX-like system, the basic steps to build are:

1. Download and install CMake (if you don't have root privileges, just install to a local directory, like ~/bin)

2. Check out the yaml-cpp source

3. Create a separate directory for the build (this is known as an out-of-source build)

4. In the build directory, run

cmake /path/to/source

For example, if you made the directory yaml-cpp/build, then run

cmake ..

5. Run the usual make; make install.