HowTo: Config-File

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The config-file is usually located in bin/orxonox.ini.

Structure

Every config-file is subdivided into sections:

[Section1]
...

[Section2]
...

[AnotherSection]
...

The name between the brackets defines the sections name and is usually identical to a class name.

After a sectionname follows a list of values belonging to the section:

[Sectionname]
varname1=value
varname2=value
varname3=value
...

Every variable refers to a variable within Orxonox. See ConfigValueIncludes? and howto/ConfigValue for more information about how to create and use those values.

Modifying a value in the config-file

To modify a value, just change the right side of the assignment

[Sectionname]
varname=oldvalue

into

[Sectionname]
varname=newvalue

If you restart Orxonox, the new value will be assigned to all instances of "Sectionname". If you don't want to restart Orxonox, call reloadConfig in the Shell?.

Modifying a value in the Shell

To change a value wihtout leaving Orxonox, open the Shell? and type:

config Sectionname varname newvalue

This will change the config-value in all existing instances of "Sectionname" and changes the entry in the config-file.

Alternatively you can use

tconfig Sectionname varname newvalue

This will only change the value in all existing instances, but not changing the config-file. Therefore the change will be lost if you restart Orxonox.

Formatting of special types

Until now we denoted the new value just as newvalue. For primitive types like int or float it's really that easy. But there exist more complex formattings for non-primitive types:

• std::string: " my text with trailing spaces "
  • Put strings into quotes if you don't want trailing spaces to be striped

• Vector2: (10, 20)
• Vector3: (10, 20, 50)
• Vector4: (10, 20, 50, 100)
• Quaternion: (1, 2, 3, 4)
• ColourValue: (0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 1.0)

• bool: true and false (or just 1 and 0 as usual)

Comments

It's possible to add comments into the config-file. They will be kept even if the file changes.

Comments are introduces by one of the following symbols:

1. #comment in script-language style
2. %comment in matlab style
3. ;comment in unreal tournament config-file style
4. comment in code style

Whitespaces

If you add whitespaces to your config-file, for example like this:

[Sectionname]

varname = value

instead of

[Sectionname]
varname=value

this will have no effect, but if the file gets saved, Orxonox will strip the whitespaces.