# Configuration file format -- General

ht://Dig Copyright © 1995-2004 The ht://Dig Group
Please see the file COPYING for license information.

All programs in the ht://Dig system use a flexible configuration file. This configuration file is a plain ASCII text file. Each line in the file is either a comment or contains an attribute. Comment lines are blank lines or lines that start with a '#'. Attributes consist of a variable name and an associated value:

  `<name>:<whitespace><value><newline>`

The <name> contains any alphanumeric character or underline (_) The <value> can include any character except newline. It also cannot start with spaces or tabs since those are considered part of the whitespace after the colon. It is important to keep in mind that any trailing spaces or tabs will be included.

It is possible to split the <value> across several lines of the configuration file by ending each line with a backslash (\). The effect on the value is that a space is added where the line split occurs.

Each program only extracts the attributes it needs and hence it is often convenient to use the same configuration file with all ht://Dig programs. If an attribute is specified more than once in the file, only the last one will be used.

If a program needs a particular attribute and it is not in the configuration file, it will use the default value which is compiled into the program as defined in `htcommon/defaults.cc`.

A configuration file can include another file, by using the special <name>, `include`. The <value> is taken as the file name of another configuration file to be read in at this point. If the given file name is not fully qualified, it is taken relative to the directory in which the current configuration file is found. Variable expansion is permitted in the file name. Multiple include statements, and nested includes are also permitted.

Example:
  `include: common.conf`

Last modified: $Date: 2004/05/28 13:15:18 $