Rockbox Technical Forums

Support and General Use => User Interface and Voice => Topic started by: whatchamacallit on August 11, 2006, 08:53:03 AM

Title: .cfg file
Post by: whatchamacallit on August 11, 2006, 08:53:03 AM
Hello,

I've just learnt about the .cfg file you can use to save your personal settings and have RB load these at startup. As writing on my iriver H320 is somewhat impractical, I will try to write a .cfg file on my PC and then save it . I've just got a few questions on that behalf:
- If I write the file on the PC (if I can?), which folder do I have to put it into?
- Can I write the settings I want to save in natural language (e.g. "disk spindown = 3s")?
- Do I have to specify the file path (e.g. "General settings > system > spindown = 3s")?
- Does there have to be a certain order?
- Do I have to include all possible settings in a .cfg file or just those I want to be different from default?
Thanks a lot!
Greetings,

whatchamacallit
Title: Re: .cfg file
Post by: bascule on August 11, 2006, 09:01:51 AM
RTFWiki  ;)  http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/CustomConfigFile
The only question not answered explicitly, although it is implicitly, is your last one - you only have to include those you want different from the default.
Title: Re: .cfg file
Post by: Febs on August 11, 2006, 09:31:20 AM
Seriously, this is described in detail in the manual.  The manual even contains an appendix showing you every option that can be included in a .cfg file and what the permissible values are.
Title: Re: .cfg file
Post by: mnhnhyouh on August 11, 2006, 09:37:41 AM
Alright Febs. I give in, and have just downloaded the manual and will read the whole bloody thing!!!

You can change my vote from browsed it, to read it in that poll if you want.

 ;D

h
Title: Re: .cfg file
Post by: whatchamacallit on August 11, 2006, 09:58:37 AM
Well, it depends on which manual you mean - in the one you can download as a pdf, it is not described in very much detail, or I wouldn't have asked. But I'll try the link RTFWiki has included in his post.
Thanks!
Greetings,

whatchamacallit

P.S.: Okay, that one is quite detailed. The sentence that it may reside anywhere on the harddisk has me a bit worried because I'm kind of used to things never being as easy as they seem, but I'll just give it a shot.
Title: Re: .cfg file
Post by: bascule on August 11, 2006, 10:30:05 AM
...But I'll try the link RTFWiki has included in his post...

Much as I like the thought of changing my name to RTFWiki, I think you'll find it has a slightly different meaning...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rtfm (NSFW) [that's Not Safe For Work if you are acromymically-challenged ;) ]
Title: Re: .cfg file
Post by: Mikerman on August 11, 2006, 03:13:22 PM
Or you can make it easy on yourself:  change the player to the settings that you want and have the player save those settings as a cfg file.

Manage Settings > Write .cfg file.
Title: Re: .cfg file
Post by: whatchamacallit on August 11, 2006, 03:24:51 PM
Hello,

thanks a lot, Mikerman! That will probably be the most reasonable way. I was planning to ask about writing cfg files on my PC, but if I can have my iriver write one itself, that's even better.
Greetings,

whatchamacallit
Title: Re: .cfg file
Post by: Mikerman on August 11, 2006, 05:18:30 PM
And a last suggestion:  if you only want to change a few things with a cfg change and don't want any other settings affected, have the player write the full cfg file for you and then open it up and delete all the things you *don't* want changed.  I often find it easier to delete things rather than trying to think what the settings are called, what the parameters are, etc., to write the cfg file from scratch.
Title: Re: .cfg file
Post by: Febs on August 12, 2006, 08:57:16 AM
Well, it depends on which manual you mean - in the one you can download as a pdf, it is not described in very much detail, or I wouldn't have asked.
That is completely wrong.   There is MORE detail in the manual then there is on that wiki page. 
Title: Re: .cfg file
Post by: whatchamacallit on August 12, 2006, 09:46:58 AM
Well, I won't argue with now. As far as I'm concerned, I've downloaded the latest manual from where you get the bleeding edge builds and the stuff on making your own .cfg file is subject 7.3 which is about a third of a page, a lot less than in the Wiki unless you know a different Wiki or a different downloadable manual...
Greetings,

whatchamacallit
Title: Re: .cfg file
Post by: Febs on August 12, 2006, 10:31:12 AM
(1) The text in section 5.4.6 of the manual has more detail  than the wiki page regarding how .cfg files are created and used.

(2) Section 7.3 of the manual cross-references Appendix C.  Appendix C contains a detailed chart of configurable options similar to the chart on the wiki page.  The difference is that the the chart in the manual is platform specific and up-to-date, while the one on the wiki is not.

I'm going to clean up that section of the manual.  It looks like 5.4.6 is out of place (the manage settings menu is not a submenu of system options) and the current section 5.4.6 and section 7.3 are redundant.

EDIT:  OK, I have merged section 5.4.6 with section 7.3 so that all of the discussion of creating, editing, and using .cfg files is in one place in section 7.3.  (The .cfg file options are still contained in an appendix.)  These changes have been committed to CVS, so they should appear in tomorrow's daily build manual.
Title: Re: .cfg file
Post by: bascule on August 12, 2006, 12:24:07 PM
EDIT:  OK, I have merged section 5.4.6 with section 7.3 so that all of the discussion of creating, editing, and using .cfg files is in one place in section 7.3.  (The .cfg file options are still contained in an appendix.)  These changes have been committed to CVS, so they should appear in tomorrow's daily build manual.

Thanks for that, Febs. I've done a couple of Wiki updates, but the effort involved in making those same amendments to the manual (download, install, learn and configure CVS, learn what source code looks like, make updates, build a manual to check etc., etc.) would just use time I haven't got at the moment :( )

I'm thankful that someone else has the energy to do it.

Is it sufficient to flag up in threads where manual changes are required, or should I be thinking about a bug submission for anything that seems v. important to me?
Title: Re: .cfg file
Post by: Febs on August 12, 2006, 12:25:43 PM
I do tend to read most of the threads on the forum, but I always prefer to see a bug report.  On any given day when I sit down to make updates to the manual, I may or may not remember something I read in the forums, but it's very easy to search flyspray for all bugs and feature requests for category "manual."
Title: Re: .cfg file
Post by: bascule on August 12, 2006, 12:27:09 PM
OK, I'll bear that in mind :)