Preferences modified by Dirk Krause

Dirk Krause — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 19:35:17 -0000

--- v3
+++ v4
@@ -405,8 +405,7 @@
 
 line.size
 Line buffer size in programs processing input line
-by line.

-Supported by dk-fic.
+by line.

Preferences modified by Dirk Krause

Dirk Krause — Fri, 28 Jul 2023 21:29:05 -0000

--- v2
+++ v3
@@ -9,7 +9,11 @@
 
 

-#  Overview
+#  Preferences
+
+[TOC]
+
+## Overview

 Preferences are key/value pairs consisting of text strings.

@@ -24,7 +28,7 @@

 ---

-#  Search order
+## Search order

 Directories marked in red are subject to package management. Do not modify files in these directories or add files. Changes you make here may be overwritten without notice during package updates or may result in package installation conflicts.
 Directories marked in blue are places for system-wide setup. Create the directories if necessary.
@@ -75,7 +79,7 @@

 ---

-#  File format
+## File format

 A preference file may consist of:

@@ -108,8 +112,8 @@

 ---

-#  Example files
-## Version 4 example file dk4pref.conf
+## Example files
+###    Version 4 example file dk4pref.conf

 ~~~ini
 # This is a comment.
@@ -136,7 +140,7 @@
 log.stderr.level=debug
 ~~~

-## Version 3 example file dk3pref.conf
+###    Version 3 example file dk3pref.conf

 ~~~ini
 # This is a comment.
@@ -165,9 +169,9 @@

 ---

-#  Known preference names
-
-## Preference names for DK libraries version 4
+## Known preference names
+
+###    Preference names for DK libraries version 4

 
@@ -311,7 +315,7 @@
 
 
 

-## Preference names for DK libraries version 3
+###    Preference names for DK libraries version 3

 
@@ -385,7 +389,7 @@
 
 
 

-## Preferences used by specific programs
+###    Preferences used by specific programs

Preferences modified by Dirk Krause

Dirk Krause — Fri, 28 Jul 2023 19:18:46 -0000

--- v1
+++ v2
@@ -1,2 +1,483 @@
-
-
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+← Previous ↑ Home ↑ Administration Next →
+
+#  Overview
+
+Preferences are key/value pairs consisting of text strings.
+
+They are stored in text files named "dk4pref.conf" (DK libraries version 4) or "dk3pref.conf" (version 3). The files can be placed in several subdirectories of the system configuration directory, the shared data directory or the users home directory.
+
+In version 4 the preference name components are separated by dot (i.e.  "log.stderr.level"), in version 3 they were separated by slash (i.e. "/log/stderr/level").
+
+For backward compatibility version 4 programs also check for "dk3pref.conf" files and convert the preferences found there to dot separated names. So you can use one preferences file to configure both version 3 and version 4 programs.
+
+Preferences can be overwritten on the command line, use i.e. "\-\-log.stderr.level=progress" for an application using version 4 libraries like bitmap2pp or "\-\-/log/stderr/level=progress" for an application using version 3 libraries like fig2lat.
+
+
+---
+
+#  Search order
+
+Directories marked in red are subject to package management. Do not modify files in these directories or add files. Changes you make here may be overwritten without notice during package updates or may result in package installation conflicts.
+Directories marked in blue are places for system-wide setup. Create the directories if necessary.
+Directories marked in green are places for per-user configuration.
+
+The group is dktools for all the programs from DK tools. Authors using DK libraries in their programs should use another group name, typically indicating the project name.
+Replace program by the name of a specific program you want to configure.
+
+
+${datadir}/dk3app/dk3pref.conf
+${datadir}/dk4app/dk4pref.conf
+${sysconfdir}/dk3app/dk3pref.conf
+${sysconfdir}/dk4app/dk4pref.conf
+${datadir}/dk3app-site/dk3pref.conf
+${datadir}/dk4app-site/dk4pref.conf
+${sysconfdir}/dk3app-site/dk3pref.conf
+${sysconfdir}/dk4app-site/dk4pref.conf
+${datadir}/group/dk3pref.conf
+${datadir}/group/dk4pref.conf
+${sysconfdir}/group/dk3pref.conf
+${sysconfdir}/group/dk4pref.conf
+${datadir}/group-site/dk3pref.conf
+${datadir}/group-site/dk4pref.conf
+${sysconfdir}/group-site/dk3pref.conf
+${sysconfdir}/group-site/dk4pref.conf
+${datadir}/program/dk3pref.conf
+${datadir}/program/dk4pref.conf
+${sysconfdir}/program/dk3pref.conf
+${sysconfdir}/program/dk4pref.conf
+${datadir}/program-site/dk3pref.conf
+${datadir}/program-site/dk4pref.conf
+${sysconfdir}/program-site/dk3pref.conf
+${sysconfdir}/program-site/dk4pref.conf
+${HOME}/.dk3app/dk3pref.conf
+${HOME}/.dk4app/dk4pref.conf
+${HOME}/.dk3app/group/dk3pref.conf
+${HOME}/.dk4app/group/dk4pref.conf
+${HOME}/.dk3app/program/dk3pref.conf
+${HOME}/.dk4app/program/dk4pref.conf
+./dk3pref.conf
+./dk4pref.conf
+
+
+All files found are processed cumulatively. Settings processed later overwrite settings from earlier files.
+So an administrator can configure general settings or settings relevant only for certain programs or program groups. A user can overwrite the default settings configured by the administrator.
+
+DK tools version 4 programs use both the "dk4pref.conf" and "dk3pref.conf" files, version 3 programs use the "dk3pref.conf" files only.
+
+---
+
+#  File format
+
+A preference file may consist of:
+
+
+Empty lines,
+
+Comments ("#" at start of line),
+
+Scope lines (conditions in square brackets) and
+
+Data lines (key/value pairs).
+
+
+
+A scope section controls whether the following data lines will be used or ignored. At the beginning of the first scope line in a scope section the scope is turned to "inactive".
+The scope is turned to "active" if all conditions in a scope line are true. The scope is turned to "inactive" if the scope is started by a minus sign "-" and all the conditions are true.
+
+The following conditions can be used:
+
+Condition|Test
+---------|----
+user=_string_|Check user name.
+application=_string_|Check program name.
+application-group=_string_|Check program group name.
+host=_string_|Check host name.
+language=_string_|Check language.
+region=_string_|Check region.
+windows|Check whether running on a Windows system, DK tools version 4 only.
+non-windows|Check whether running on a non-Windows system, DK tools version 4 only.
+
+---
+
+#  Example files
+## Version 4 example file dk4pref.conf
+
+~~~ini
+# This is a comment.
+# Comments have a raute character # as first character in the line.
+# Empty lines are ignored.
+
+# Next we do some setup for all users
+[user=*]
+log.stderr.level=error
+
+# Next we overwrite this for one user
+[user=joe]
+log.stderr.level=debug
+
+# Now we overwrite this again for all hosts except the host named "pc0815".
+# We first open a new scope and include all hosts, in the next line
+# we explicitly exclude one host.
+[host=*]
+[-host=pc0815]
+log.stderr.level=progress
+
+# Now we use an and-combination of conditions
+[host=pc0815,user=jim,language=en,region=us,application=jimapp]
+log.stderr.level=debug
+~~~
+
+## Version 3 example file dk3pref.conf
+
+~~~ini
+# This is a comment.
+# Comments have a raute character # as first character in the line.
+# Empty lines are ignored.
+
+# Next we do some setup for all users
+[user=*]
+/log/stderr/level=error
+
+# Next we overwrite this for one user
+[user=joe]
+/log/stderr/level=debug
+
+# Now we overwrite this again for all hosts except the host named "pc0815".
+# We first open a new scope and include all hosts, in the next line
+# we explicitly exclude one host.
+[host=*]
+[-host=pc0815]
+/log/stderr/level=progress
+
+# Now we use an and-combination of conditions
+[host=pc0815,user=jim,language=en,region=us,application=jimapp]
+/log/stderr/level=debug
+~~~
+
+---
+
+#  Known preference names
+
+## Preference names for DK libraries version 4
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Name Purpose
Internationalization
ui.language Users preferred language in lower case
+characters, i.e. "de", "en", …
ui.region Users preferred region in lower case
+characters, i.e. "de", "us", …
ui.lang Language, region and optionally encoding
+as specified in the LANG environment variable, i.e. "de_DE.UTF-8".

+This preference is available for backward compatibility with DK tools version 3.
+The encoding specified here is ignored.
+
input.encoding Expected input encoding when processing standard
+input.

+One from:
+
+plain
+win1252
+utf-8
+utf-16

+Two variants allow to specify endianness:
+
+utf-16-be (big-endian, most significant byte first)
+utf-16-le (little-endian, least significant byte first)
+
+
+c32

+Two variants allow to specify endianness:
+
+c32-be (big-endian)
+c32-le (little-endian)
+
+
+
+
input.file.encoding Expected input encoding when processing a file.
dir.charmap Directory containing data files for text to LaTeX
+conversion.

+Supported by dk-t2l, wxd2lat and plpdftex.

+Used by the dk4uc2l\_open\_app\_ex1() function in the dk4uc2la module.
Sizes
db.key.max-size Size
Maximum key size for text input.

+Supported by dk-dbco.

+Used by the dk4dbi\_open\_app() function in the dk4dbia module.
+
db.value.max-size Size
Maximum key size for text input.

+Supported by dk-dbco.

+Used by the dk4dbi\_open\_app() function in the dk4dbia module.
+
Log output
log.stderr.level Log priority required for logging to stderr.
log.stderr.time Boolean, controls whether or not timestamps
+are shown when logging to stderr.
log.file.level Log priority required for logging to file.
log.file.time Boolean, controls whether or not timestamps
+are shown when logging to file.
log.file.keep Log priority required for keeping the log
+file when the program exits.
GUI
window.restore-maximized Restore window in maximized state if it was maximized
+on previous application exit.

+Supported by the GUI applications.

+Used by the RestorePosition() method of the Dk4WxFrame class.
+
window.restore-iconized Restore window in iconized state if it was iconized
+on previous application exit.

+Supported by the GUI applications.

+Used by the RestorePosition() method of the Dk4WxFrame class.
+
window.restore-size Attempt to restore the window size.

+Supported by the GUI applications.

+Used by the RestorePosition() method of the Dk4WxFrame class.
+
+
+## Preference names for DK libraries version 3
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Name Purpose
Internationalization
/ui/lang Language, region and optionally encoding
+as specified in the LANG environment variable, i.e. "de_DE.UTF-8".

+This preference is available for backward compatibility with DK tools version 3.
+The encoding specified here is ignored.
+
/input/encoding/stdin Expected input encoding when processing standard
+input.

+One from:
+
+plain
+utf-8
+utf-16

+Two variants allow to specify endianness:
+
+utf-16-be (big-endian, most significant byte first)
+utf-16-le (little-endian, least significant byte first)
+
+
+c32

+Two variants allow to specify endianness:
+
+c32-be (big-endian)
+c32-le (little-endian)
+
+
+
+
/input/encoding/file Expected input encoding when processing a file.
/dir/charmap Directory containing data files for text to LaTeX
+conversion.
Log output
/log/stderr/level Log priority required for logging to stderr.
/log/file/level Log priority required for logging to file.
/log/file/keep Log priority required for keeping the log
+file when the program exits.
+
+## Preferences used by specific programs
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Name Purpose
Sizes
line.size Line buffer size in programs processing input line
+by line.

+Supported by dk-fic.
+
text-db.key.max-size Size
Maximum key size for text input.

+Supported by dk-db2t.
+
text-db.value.max-size Size
Maximum value size for text input.

+Supported by dk-db2t.
+
Message digests
message.digest Default message digest and encoding.
+Digest type and encoding are separated by a dot. The digest type is one
+from: "md5", "sha-1",
+"sha-224", "sha-256", "sha-384", "sha-512", or "ripemd-160".
+The encoding is one from "hex" (ASCII-Hex encoding) or
+"a85" (ASCII-85 encoding).

+Supported by dk-ls.
+
Random data generation
rand.egd.name EGD socket name.

+Programs using the OpenSSL pseudo random number generator (PRNG) or another
+PRNG can attempt to seed the PRNG using data from this socket if an
+entropy gathering daemon (EGD) is running.

+The built-in configured sources of entropy are tried first, the EGD socket
+is only used if the built-in routines failed to seed the PRNG.

+If an "EGDSOCKET" environment variable exists the socket specified
+there is attempted first.

+Supported by dk-pwgen, used only if the environment variable EGDSOCKET
+is not defined or not usable.
+
Printing
/print/paper-size Name of the default paper size for printing,
+i.e. "A4" or "Legal".
+The paper size must be configured in a dk3paper.conf file, see
+%%a href=admin-paper.html text="dk3paper.conf - Paper sizes" title="Go to "Administration → Configuration files → dk3paper.conf - Paper sizes" page" target=_blank%% (library version 3 only).

+Previously supported by bmeps.
+
/print/ps/level PostScript level, "2" or "3".
+

+Supported by fig2lat.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+← Previous ↑ Home ↑ Administration Next →

Name	Purpose
*Internationalization*
ui.language	Users preferred language in lower case +characters, i.e. "de", "en", …
ui.region	Users preferred region in lower case +characters, i.e. "de", "us", …
ui.lang	Language, region and optionally encoding +as specified in the LANG environment variable, i.e. "de_DE.UTF-8". +This preference is available for backward compatibility with DK tools version 3. +The encoding specified here is ignored. +
input.encoding	Expected input encoding when processing standard +input. +One from: + + plain + win1252 + utf-8 + utf-16 +Two variants allow to specify endianness: + + utf-16-be (big-endian, most significant byte first) + utf-16-le (little-endian, least significant byte first) + + + c32 +Two variants allow to specify endianness: + + c32-be (big-endian) + c32-le (little-endian) + + + +
input.file.encoding	Expected input encoding when processing a file.
dir.charmap	Directory containing data files for text to LaTeX +conversion. +Supported by dk-t2l, wxd2lat and plpdftex. +Used by the dk4uc2l\_open\_app\_ex1() function in the dk4uc2la module.
*Sizes*
db.key.max-size	Size Maximum key size for text input. +Supported by dk-dbco. +Used by the dk4dbi\_open\_app() function in the dk4dbia module. +
db.value.max-size	Size Maximum key size for text input. +Supported by dk-dbco. +Used by the dk4dbi\_open\_app() function in the dk4dbia module. +
*Log output*
log.stderr.level	Log priority required for logging to stderr.
log.stderr.time	Boolean, controls whether or not timestamps +are shown when logging to stderr.
log.file.level	Log priority required for logging to file.
log.file.time	Boolean, controls whether or not timestamps +are shown when logging to file.
log.file.keep	Log priority required for keeping the log +file when the program exits.
*GUI*
window.restore-maximized	Restore window in maximized state if it was maximized +on previous application exit. +Supported by the GUI applications. +Used by the RestorePosition() method of the Dk4WxFrame class. +
window.restore-iconized	Restore window in iconized state if it was iconized +on previous application exit. +Supported by the GUI applications. +Used by the RestorePosition() method of the Dk4WxFrame class. +
window.restore-size	Attempt to restore the window size. +Supported by the GUI applications. +Used by the RestorePosition() method of the Dk4WxFrame class. +

Name	Purpose
*Internationalization*
/ui/lang	Language, region and optionally encoding +as specified in the LANG environment variable, i.e. "de_DE.UTF-8". +This preference is available for backward compatibility with DK tools version 3. +The encoding specified here is ignored. +
/input/encoding/stdin	Expected input encoding when processing standard +input. +One from: + + plain + utf-8 + utf-16 +Two variants allow to specify endianness: + + utf-16-be (big-endian, most significant byte first) + utf-16-le (little-endian, least significant byte first) + + + c32 +Two variants allow to specify endianness: + + c32-be (big-endian) + c32-le (little-endian) + + + +
/input/encoding/file	Expected input encoding when processing a file.
/dir/charmap	Directory containing data files for text to LaTeX +conversion.
*Log output*
/log/stderr/level	Log priority required for logging to stderr.
/log/file/level	Log priority required for logging to file.
/log/file/keep	Log priority required for keeping the log +file when the program exits.

Name	Purpose
*Sizes*
line.size	Line buffer size in programs processing input line +by line. +Supported by dk-fic. +
text-db.key.max-size	Size Maximum key size for text input. +Supported by dk-db2t. +
text-db.value.max-size	Size Maximum value size for text input. +Supported by dk-db2t. +
*Message digests*
message.digest	Default message digest and encoding. +Digest type and encoding are separated by a dot. The digest type is one +from: "md5", "sha-1", +"sha-224", "sha-256", "sha-384", "sha-512", or "ripemd-160". +The encoding is one from "hex" (ASCII-Hex encoding) or +"a85" (ASCII-85 encoding). +Supported by dk-ls. +
*Random data generation*
rand.egd.name	EGD socket name. +Programs using the OpenSSL pseudo random number generator (PRNG) or another +PRNG can attempt to seed the PRNG using data from this socket if an +entropy gathering daemon (EGD) is running. +The built-in configured sources of entropy are tried first, the EGD socket +is only used if the built-in routines failed to seed the PRNG. +If an "EGDSOCKET" environment variable exists the socket specified +there is attempted first. +Supported by dk-pwgen, used only if the environment variable EGDSOCKET +is not defined or not usable. +
*Printing*
/print/paper-size	Name of the default paper size for printing, +i.e. "A4" or "Legal". +The paper size must be configured in a dk3paper.conf file, see +%%a href=admin-paper.html text="dk3paper.conf - Paper sizes" title="Go to "Administration → Configuration files → dk3paper.conf - Paper sizes" page" target=_blank%% (library version 3 only). +Previously supported by bmeps. +
/print/ps/level	PostScript level, "2" or "3". + +Supported by fig2lat. +

Preferences modified by Dirk Krause

Dirk Krause — Fri, 28 Jul 2023 18:36:24 -0000

Recent changes to Preferences

Preferences modified by Dirk Krause

Preferences modified by Dirk Krause

Preferences modified by Dirk Krause

Preferences modified by Dirk Krause