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Preferences and System Defaults
What Preferences Are
A "preference" is exactly that; you indicate your preference as to how a program should behave for you, where there is a personalized choice to be made. When a program starts up, it consults your personal "preferences" file, which is located in your home directory, to see if you have indicated any preference for how it should act. Andrew programs search for one of the three file names below in the given order:
preferences
.preferences
.Xdefaults
You may give your preferences file any one of these three names. If you have more than one of these named files in your directory, Andrew programs will only follow the preferences contained in the first of the three that it finds.
If it finds any entries in your preferences file that pertain to its own settings, it acts accordingly; otherwise, it takes some default action that has been established by the program author.
Thus, the EZ editor has a font which it uses by default. But when it starts up, before using this default font, it consults your preferences file to see if you prefer a different one.
If you decide to edit your preferences file, be sure to read the rules and warnings just below. As with any form of customization, it is possible to "break" a program by setting a preference wrong.
Each line in the preferences file has the form
programname.option: value
where programname is the program in which you want the default feature to change, option is the name of the feature you want to change and value is the value you want to give it. The lists of preferences below detail which values are permissible for each preference (they may be "yes/no," a number, or "on/off").
Some options apply to more than one program, though most do not (bodyfont is an example of one that does). If you want an option to take on value in any program where it could apply, omit programname and the period, leaving
option: value
Rules for Changing Preferences
When changing preferences, keep these rules in mind:
Add a preference only when you want to change its default value. The default values for each preference are shown in the Quick Reference list below. These values remain in effect until you change them, even though the preference does not appear in your preferences file. (Note that all of the preferences in the new user preferences file at Carnegie Mellon are changed from their defaults; that is why system administrators have put them in that file.)
Change preferences with care. Keep a backup copy of your original preferences file (the one that works) under another name (perhaps "preferences.old") so you can get it back if your new preferences file does not work.
Spell and punctuate correctly. Do not put tabs or extra blank spaces in preferences entries. Capitalization does not matter (entries in the Quick Reference list below have upper case letters only for ease of reading), except for Console names, which can not be capitalized. It is important that you spell everything correctly. Put each entry on a separate line, but do not put carriage returns into individual entries.
Do not use the ~ (tilde). Some Andrew application programs allow you to abbreviate full directory pathnames using the tilde. This will not work in preferences.
Use the # (crosshatch) character for comments. If you want the programs that look at the preferences file to ignore a line, put a crosshatch (#) at the start of the line. This is useful for including explanatory comments, and for temporarily canceling preferences that you do not actually want to remove.
Remove all formatting styles. Formatting styles in the preferences file will cause Startup Errors, and your preferences will not take effect. To remove them, select the entire preferences file and choose Plainest before saving the file. This is especially important if you have copied preference entries from other files and pasted them into yours.
Remember to save the file. As with any file, you must remember to save your preferences file to guarantee that the changes you make are stored permanently.
Restart any relevant programs. The changes you make to preferences that concern a given program will not take effect until you start up the program from scratch in a new "process." For example, if you make a change to an EZ-related preference, it will not take effect until you start up EZ from scratch. Because you can have more than one EZ process active at a time, it could happen that the preference is in effect in some of your EZ windows but not others.
File Name Expansion
Some preferences let you specify file names. A usual file name is a sequence of slashes and identifiers. In addition, a file name in most preferences can have the following:
Environment variables. A section of a name having the form $XXX will be replaced with the value of the environment variable XXX, if there is one. (If there isn't one, the $XXX is left intact in the name.) To set an environment variable in the csh, use the command
setenv XXX value
For other shells, see their documentation. WARNING: If XXX is in your environment, You cannot have a file or directory named $XXX.
Initial /../ Some systems allow names beginning with /../xxx to refer to files on other machines. These names are allowed in file names in the Andrew System.
Machine-Specific Preferences
If you need to have preferences that are only active on a specific machine or sys-type (rt, sun3, vax), you can use the following preference forms:
?M=machine.name:preference
?C=systype:preference
For example, the following line would cause typescripts you start while on the machine "pgh.andrew.cmu.edu" to be 600x600 pixels.
?M=pgh.andrew.cmu.edu:typescript.geometry:600x600
Environment-Specific Preferences
If you need to have preferences that are only active when a certain environment variable is set, you can use the following preference forms:
?E=environmentvariable=value:preference
?E!environmentvariable=value:preference
Meaningful colons within these specifications can be quoted with the backslash character ("\"). For example, the following line would cause typescripts you start while the "DISPLAY" environment variable is "pgh:0" to be 600x600 pixels.
?E=DISPLAY=pgh\:0:typescript.geometry:600x600
Please Note: Machine-specific and environment-specific preferences should be listed prior to a standard preference in order to be effective.
Quick Reference List of Preferences
The sections below detail options that you can put into your preferences file, and show the default value for each in italics.
Capitalization is not important in preferences (the uppercase letters in the options below are simply for ease of reading). Punctuation and spacing are important.
In the following entries, anything for which you need to supply a value is in italics (this is usually just the value part after the colon). The part in boldface must be typed with the spacing shown (but not the capitalization). Some preferences have no default value, often because each user must type his or her own pathname; angle brackets ( < > ) appear around those values.
Window and Mouse Properties
The preferences for geometry and color, which affect all applications, are documented in their own help files, color and geometry .
AndyFontsFudgeFactor: 75:2
This preference allows you to control the size difference when requesting X fonts with the Andy font names. (e.g. andysans12 by default maps to a 14 point helvetica font.) One suggested setting for this preference is:
75:2,100:0
The first number is the DPI of the display, typically near 75, or 100 dpi (dots per inch). The second is the 'fudge' factor to be added to the andy font sizes to get the corresponding X font size. (See the output of xdpyinfo for the DPI of your display.)
XDPI
If your X server reports an incorrect DPI (dots per inch), you can use this preference to override the server's report for ATK applications.
XHorizontalDPI:
If your X server reports an incorrect DPI (dots per inch) horizontally, you can use this preference to override the server's report for ATK applications.
XVerticalDPI:
If your X server reports an incorrect DPI (dots per inch) vertically, you can use this preference to override the server's report for ATK applications.
MouseHysteresis: 50
Under some X servers with two button mice a problem occurs when the user presses both buttons: Sometimes the server sends first the down stroke for one button and then the down stroke for both. To adapt to this problem, ATK waits a short time after any mouse down operation to see if the other button is going to go down. The wait time is given by the preference option MouseHysteresis, an integer number of milliseconds. The default value of 1/20th second has worked well and should not need to be changed.
CtrlUCmds: yes
When set to no, ^U can be used in normal key bindings, otherwise it controls the argument/repetition mechanism.
XStyleSelections: no
When set to yes, the selected region in any text insets (or other insets which support the X selection protocol.), will behave just like normal X application selections.
StrictXStyleSelections: yes
When set to yes, the selected region will be deselected if another application or inset grabs the selection. (In insets which support the X selection protocol, current only text.) This preference has no effect unless XStyleSelections is set to yes. Setting this preference to yes will cause ezdiff to behave differently, since it tries to show the differences by highlighting the corresponding regions in two files. But with StrictXStyleSelections set to yes only one region is allowed to be highlighted. Some other insets and packages may suffer similar problems, but ezdiff is the only one known at this time.
CopyOnSelect: yes
When set to yes, text (or other data in insets which support the X selection protocol) will be automatically placed in the cut buffer when it is selected. (Making the Copy menu option redundant.) Otherwise only explicit operations like Copy or Cut will place data in the cut buffer. This preference has no effect unless XStyleSelections is set to yes.
AutoCut: No
If enabled, this preference causes selected text to automatically be cut when backspace is pressed or when any new text is inserted. This is similar to the text editing behavior in Motiftm, except that the text is placed in the cutbuffer so that it might be retrieved.
AlwaysMakeCutBuffers: No
When yes ATK applications will check all 8 cutbuffers and create any which aren't found. Otherwise if the last cutbuffer exists it is assumed the other 7 exist as well.
LeftIncrement: 10
TopIncrement: 10
Under X if the geometry specifies a size and position and the user brings up a second window with the same geometry, they overlay each other exactly. To avoid this, ATK attempts to offset windows after the first. The new window will be LeftIncrement pixels further to the right and TopIncrement pixels down from the previous window.
UseBackingStore: yes
Under X11, you can run with the application using backing store. In this case when menus are brought up the server will attempt to repaint the bits when they go down. Also overlapping windows will use this feature. Unfortunately on some servers backing store is very expensive and having the client repaint is a better choice.
DialogPriority: integer
This is a value between 0 and 100 that controls when dialog boxes are used as opposed to the message line. A value of about 30 brings up most things in a dialog box.
QuitWindowOnly: no
When yes, the Quit menu item will by default quit only the window it is chosen in. By default this preference is no, and choosing quit will exit the application.
QuitBuffer: no
When both QuitWindowOnly and this preference are yes, the Quit menu item will by default delete the buffer and the window. (Or only the window if the buffer is being viewed in other windows.)
LastWindowQuitWarning: yes
When this is yes, if you delete the last window, you will see a dialog box warning you that the program is about to quit. If you change this to no, there will be no dialog box; deleting the last window will silently quit the program.
UseProgramNameInTitle: yes
If this is set to "no", then the program name will not be included in the window title bar. The default is that the program name will be included in the window title bar.
MaxTitleLength: -1
The value limits the maximum length of the string in the window title bar. The default value is -1, indicating that the length of the window title bar string is unlimited. The title bar string is made up of two different parts: the first, which may be omitted, is the program name; the second, some application-specific string. In the case of the Ez editor, the program name is "ez" and the application-specific portion is the current file name or buffer. When a positive value is specified, the front part of the application-specific string is truncated, limiting its total length to this value. This preference is most useful with programs that place a potentially long, filename in the title bar.
MaxIconLabelLength: -1
The value limits the maximum length of the string in a window's icon label. The default value is -1, indicating that the length of the window's icon label is unlimited. The icon label is made up of two different parts: the first is the program name; the second some application-specific string. In the case of the Ez editor, the program name is "ez" and the application-specific portion is the current file name or buffer. When a positive value is specified, the front part of the application-specific string is truncated, limiting its total length to this value. This preference is most useful with programs that place a potentially long, filename in the icon label.
Shadows
UseNewShadows: no
Determines whether the new improved shadow color computations are used for the scollbars, dialogs, sbuttons, menubars, and Motif-style popups. This preference can be overridden with MenubarUseNewShadows, PopupsUseNewShadows, or SbuttonUseNewShadows. (Note that the SbuttonUseNewShadows will affect the dialogs and scroll bars as well.)
ShadowsLiteDarkenTop: 5
When the background is deemed to be "Lite" (luminosity > 95 by default), the top shadow will be darkened by this percentage.
ShadowsLiteDarkenBottom: 25
When the background is deemed to be "Lite" (luminosity > .95 by default), the bottom shadow will be darkened by this percentage.
ShadowsDarkLightenTop: 40
When the background is deemed to be "Dark" (luminosity < .10 by default), the top shadow will be lightened by this percentage.
ShadowsDarkLightenBottom: 20
When the background is deemed to be "Dark" (luminosity < .10 by default), the bottom shadow will be lightened by this percentage.
ShadowsMediumLightenTop: 15
When the background is deemed to be "Medium" (.10 < luminosity < .95 by default), the top shadow will be lightened by this percentage.
ShadowsMediumDarkenBottom: 15
When the background is deemed to be "Medium" (.10 < luminosity < .95 by default), the bottom shadow will be darkened by this percentage.
ShadowsLiteDarkenPressed: 10
NOTE: this feature is currently not used.
Setting this preference will have no effect.
When the background is deemed to be "Lite" (luminosity > .95 by default), the interior of a depressed area will be darkened by this percentage.
ShadowsMediumDarkenPressed: 5
NOTE: this feature is currently not used.
Setting this preference will have no effect.
When the background is deemed to be "Lite" (.10 < luminosity < .95 by default), the interior of a depressed area will be darkened by this percentage.
ShadowsDarkLightenPressed: 30
NOTE: this feature is currently not used.
Setting this preference will have no effect.
When the background is deemed to be "Lite" (luminosity < .10 by default), the interior of a depressed area will be lightened by this percentage.
Cursors
CursorForegroundColor: black
The color used for the foreground of the pointer cursor.
CursorBackgroundColor: white
The color used for the background of the pointer cursor.
Dialog Boxes
UseBuiltinDialogs: no
If set to yes the old dialog boxes will be used, the default dialog boxes cause less redrawing and are much more customizable. It is not guaranteed that the old (builtin) dialog boxes will be available in any future releases.
DialogButtonFont: andysans12b
The font used to draw the labels on the dialog's buttons.
DialogButtonForeground: <defaults to the foreground color for the application, as set by the foregroundcolor preference>
The color in which the main features of the plainer dialog box buttons (see DialogStyle) will be drawn and from which several other colors will be computed to provide a "3D" effect for the "Three Dimensional" and "OSF/Motif" (TM) style buttons.
DialogButtonBackground: <defaults to the background color for the application, as set by the backgroundcolor preference>
The color in which the background of the plainer dialog boxes (see DialogStyle) will be drawn and from which several other colors will be computed to provide a "3D" effect for the "Three Dimensional" and "OSF/Motif" (TM) style buttons.
DialogButtonTop: <by default this is computed from the foreground and background preferences>
The color which will be drawn in the background behind a button's label. (For the "3D-ish" buttons.)
DialogButtonTopShadow: <by default this is computed from the foreground and background preferences>
The color which will be used to draw the upper shadow of a button when it is "inactive" (ie, not pressed). (For the "3D-ish" buttons.)
DialogButtonBottomShadow: <by default this is computed from the foreground and background preferences>
The color which will be used to draw the lower shadow of a button when it is "inactive" (ie, not pressed). (For the "3D-ish" buttons.)
DialogButtonLabelForeground: <defaults to the foreground color for the application, as set by the foregroundcolor preference>
The color in which the actual label of a button will be drawn in.
DialogButtonLabelBackground: <defaults to the background color for the application, as set by the backgroundcolor preference>
The color of the shadow around the label of a button. (For the "3D-ish" buttons.)
For the dialog box:
DialogStyle: 4
This integer preference specifies which "look" should be used for the dialog box and its buttons. The default of 4 indicates "OSF/Motif" (TM) appearance. The supported styles are:
1. Double Boxed.
2. Three Dimensional.
3. Plain Box.
4. OSF/Motif (TM).
DialogForeground: <defaults to the default foreground color for the application, as set by the foregroundcolor preference>
The color in which the foreground of the plainer dialog boxes (see DialogStyle) will be drawn and from which several other colors will be computed to provide a "3D" effect for the "Three Dimensional" and "OSF/Motif" (TM) style buttons. Setting this will also have the effect of setting the DialogButtonForeground preference, unless one already exists.
DialogBackground: <defaults to the background color for the application, as set by the backgroundcolor preference>
The color in which the background of the plainer dialog boxes (see DialogStyle) will be drawn and from which several other colors will be computed to provide a "3D" effect for the "Three Dimensional" and "OSF/Motif" (TM) style buttons. Setting this will also have the effect of setting the DialogButtonBackground preference, unless one already exists.
DialogTop: <by default this is computed from the foreground and background preferences>
The color which will be drawn in the background of the dialog box. Setting this will also have the effect of setting the DialogButtonTop preference, unless one already exists. (For the "3D-ish" dialogs, ie Three Dimensional and "OSF/Motif" (TM))
DialogTopShadow: <by default this is computed from the foreground and background preferences>
The color which will be used to draw the upper shadow of a button when it is "inactive" (ie, not pressed). Setting this will also have the effect of setting the DialogButtonTopShadow preference, unless one already exists. (For the "3D-ish" dialogs, ie Three Dimensional and "OSF/Motif" (TM).)
DialogBottomShadow: <by default this is computed from the foreground and background preferences>
The color which will be used to draw the lower shadow of a button when it is "inactive" (ie, not pressed). Setting this will also have the effect of setting the DialogButtonBottomShadow preference, unless one already exists. (For the "3D-ish" dialogs, ie Three Dimensional and "OSF/Motif" (TM).)
OSF and Motif are registered trademarks of the Open Software Foundation.
Menus
(for more information see the help files for Menus, Cmenu, and Menubar)
AndrewLanguage: (no default)
When set this name will be used to locate message line and menu translation files for the specified language. (These translation files will normally be found in $ANDREWDIR/lib/language.menu and $ANDREWDIR/lib/language.msg. Where language is the name of the language.) This preference can be set or overridden with the environment variable ANDREWLANGUAGE.
AndrewLanguageFile: (no default)
The file to read message line and menu translations from, the normal translation files will be found in $ANDREWDIR/lib/*.msg, i.e. files ending in the .msg extension. This preference can be set or overridden with the environment variable ANDREWLANGUAGEFILE.
AndrewLanguageMenuFile: (no default)
The file to read menu translations from, the normal translation files will be found in $ANDREWDIR/lib/*.menu, i.e. files ending in the .menu extension. This preference can be set or overridden with the environment variable ANDREWLANGUAGEMENUFILE.
TranslateMenus: yes
When on, menus will be translated according to the AndrewLanguage and/or AndrewLanguageMenuFile preferences.
AlwaysDisplayStyleMenus: on
When off, the menus for font and style changes will only appear when a region of text is selected; otherwise these menus will always appear.
Menubar: on
Determines whether a menubar is provided across the top of every window.
PopupMenus: on
Determines whether popup (aka stack of cards) menus are provided.
PopupMenuList: (no default)
Allows you to list the names of menucards which should always appear on a popup "stack of cards" menu. If the menubar is active and this preference exists and is non-empty only menus in the list given will appear on the "stack of cards". The format for this preference is:
*.PopupMenuList: "Card1Name", "Card2Name"
Note that more than two cards can be listed and each card name must be enclosed in quotes. There should be no space before the commas, and leading spaces, trailing spaces and tabs will be ignored.
CardOrder: (no default)
Allows you to change the ordering of menus. Each menu has a priority from 1 to 100, menus with lower priority are placed to the left in the menubar and towards the front in the "stack of cards". The format for this preference is:
*.CardOrder: "Card1Name~Card1Priority", "Card2Name~Card2Priority"
(The above may appear as two or more lines on the screen but is really only one line.) The strings in italics should be replaced by a number from 1 to 100 indicating the priority of the corresponding menu. (Remember: never put styles in your preferences file, they are used here only for ease of discussion.)
This preference can change the order menus appear in both the stack of cards and in the menubar. The ~CardPriority strings can be omitted for some or all of the cards. In this case the first card will default to a priority of 10, and any others will default to the priority of the previous card plus the value of the PriorityStep preference.
PopupCardOrder: (no default)
This preference works just like the CardOrder preference except it only affects the "popup" or stack of cards.
MenubarCardOrder: (no default)
This preference works just like the CardOrder preference except it only affects the menubar.
PriorityStep: 5
The amount to offset the priority of each menu from the previous menu in the CardOrder preferences if no priority is given.
MenubarHoldButton: 1
When this button is used to activate the menubar but is released over the menubar or the name of a menu card on the "More" menu, the menu card will remain displayed and a click can then select an item or restart dragging.
MenubarCardDelay: 0
When one menucard is visible this is the amount of time, in milliseconds, the mouse must remain stationary before a new menucard will be brought up.
MenubarSpacing: 5
Sets amount of extra space (in pixels) around the names of menus in the menubar.
MenubarCardSpacing: 5
Sets amounts of extra space (in pixels) around the names of items in menucards.
MenubarGroupSpacing: (defaults to 1/3 the height of the item font)
Sets amounts of extra space (in pixels) between "groups" of items in the menucards. Groups are sets of menu items with priorities starting with the same digit. (See the help on initfiles.)
MenubarKeysSpacing: 5
Sets the amount of extra space between the longest menu item and the key equivalents (if they are being displayed, otherwise it has no effect.)
MenubarPadding: 2
Sets amount of extra space (in pixels) between the shadow borders and their contents.
MenubarGrayPercentage: 40
Percentage brighter or darker than the foreground the default gray should be. An explicit color can be given with the MenubarGrayTitleColor and MenubarGrayItemColor preferences.
MenubarTopShadowPercentage: 50
Percentage brighter or darker than the foreground the default TopShadow color should be. An explicit color can be given with the MenubarGrayTitleColor and MenubarGrayItemColor preferences.
MenubarShadowDepth: 2
The width of the boxes around selected items.
MenubarTitleFont: andy12b
The font to use for the menu names.
MenubarItemFont: andy12b
The font to use on the menu cards.
MenubarKeysFont: andy12bi
The font to use for the key equivalents on the menu cards.
MenubarTitleColor: black
The color to draw the menu names in.
MenubarBackgroundColor: white
The background color to use in the menubar.
MenubarItemColor: black
The color to draw menu items in.
MenubarCardBackgroundColor: white
The background color to use in menu cards.
MenubarGrayItemColor: black
The color to draw inactive menu items in.
MenubarKeysColor: black
The color to draw the key equivalents in.
MenubarGrayItemStipple: None
The stipple pattern to draw inactive menu items with.
MenubarGrayTitleColor: black
The color to draw the titles of inactive menu cards.
MenubarGrayTitleStipple: None
The path of a stipple pattern to draw the titles of inactive menu cards, or None if no stipple pattern is desired.
MenubarTopShadowColor: black
The color to draw the top of the selection box in the menubar in.
MenubarTopShadowStipple: (defaults to gray)
The path of an X stipple pattern to draw the top of the selection box in the menubar with, or None if no stipple pattern is desired.
MenubarBottomShadowColor: black
The color to draw the bottom of the selection box in the menubar in.
MenubarBottomShadowStipple: None
The path to a stipple pattern to draw the bottom of the selection box in the menubar in, or None if no stipple pattern is desired.
MenubarCardTopShadowColor: black
The color to draw the top of the selection box around menu items in.
MenubarCardTopShadowStipple: (defaults to gray)
The path to a stipple pattern to draw the top of the selection box around menu items with, or None if no stipple pattern is desired.
MenubarCardBottomShadowColor: black
The color to draw the bottom of the selection box around menu items in.
MenubarCardBottomShadowStipple: None
The stipple pattern to draw the bottom of the selection box around menu items with, or None if no stipple pattern is desired.
MenubarShowKeys: yes
Indicates whether menu items with key equivalents should have those key equivalents displayed on the pulldown menu cards.
PopupsShowKeys: yes
Indicates whether menu items with key equivalents should have those key equivalents displayed on the popup menu cards.
MenusShowInactive: yes
Indicates whether menu items which are not currently applicable should be displayed. If they are displayed they will be grayed out.
MenubarShowInactive: <defaults to the value of MenusShowInactive>
Indicates whether menu items which are not currently applicable should be displayed in pulldown menus. If they are displayed they will be grayed out.
PopupsShowInactive: <defaults to the value of MenusShowInactive>
Indicates whether menu items which are not currently applicable should be displayed in popup menus. If they are displayed they will be grayed out.
MenubarUseNewShadows: no
Uses the new computations for shadow colors; these computations work in more situations than the old, but may cause your menubar to appear different.
PopupsUseNewShadows: no
Uses the new computations for shadow colors; these computations work in more situations than the old, but may cause your popup menus to appear different.
MotifPopupMenus: no
Determines whether or not to use a Motif 3D style for the menu cards. Note that if MotifPopupMenusOnColor is set to yes the MotifPopupMenus setting will be overridden.
MotifPopupMenusOnColor: yes
When this preference is set to yes (the default), a Motif 3D style will be used for the menu cards on color displays, but not on monochrome displays.
Scroll Bars
MimicOldScrollbar: FALSE (in color) TRUE (in monochrome)
This preference, when TRUE, alters the defaults of many other scroll bar preferences in order to emulate the older style ATK scroll bars.
ScrollDrawBorders: TRUE (FALSE when mimicking the old scroll bar)
Whether a border is drawn around the interior of the frame.
ScrollStyle: 4 (3 when mimicking the old scroll bar)
This integer preference specifies which "look" should be used for all the components of the scroll bar. The default of 4 indicates "OSF/Motif" (TM) appearance.
The only supported style is the "OSF/Motif" (TM) appearance. The other styles may or may not work correctly and may effect the behavior of the scroll bar as well as it's appearance.
The possible values for this preference are:
1. Double Boxed.
2. Three Dimensional.
3. Plain Box.
4. OSF/Motif (TM).
Setting this will also have the effect of setting the ScrollMatteStyle, ScrollBarStyle, ScrollButtonStyle, and ScrollElevatorStyle preferences. Any of these preferences may be set individually or with any of the others including ScrollStyle.
ScrollForeground: <defaults to the foreground color for the application, as set by the foregroundcolor preference>
This color will be used to compute several other colors to provide a "3D" effect for the "Three Dimensional" and "OSF/Motif" (TM) style scroll bars. Setting this will also have the effect of setting the ScrollMatteForeground, ScrollBarForeground, ScrollButtonForeground, and ScrollElevatorForeground preferences. Any of these preferences may be set individually or with any of the others including ScrollForeground.
ScrollBackground: <defaults to the background color for the application, as set by the backgroundcolor preference>
This color will be used to compute several other colors to provide a "3D" effect for the "Three Dimensional" and "OSF/Motif" (TM) style scroll bars. Setting this will also have the effect of setting the ScrollMatteBackground, ScrollBarBackground, ScrollButtonBackground, and ScrollElevatorBackground preferences. Any of these preferences may be set individually or with any of the others including ScrollBackground.
ScrollTop: <by default this is computed from the foreground and background preferences>
This color will be used to draw the background (the raised or depressed area) of the matte (the area around the scroll bar(s) and the document), the bar or the buttons. Setting this will also have the effect of setting the ScrollMatteTop, ScrollBarTop, ScrollButtonTop, and ScrollElevatorTop preferences. Any of these preferences may be set individually or with any of the others including ScrollTop.
ScrollTopShadow: <by default this is computed from the foreground and background preferences>
The color which will be used to draw the upper shadow of the matte (the area around the view and scroll bar(s)) or the bottom shadow of the bar(s) (since they are supposed to look depressed). Setting this will also have the effect of setting the ScrollMatteTopShadow, ScrollBarTopShadow, ScrollButtonTopShadow, and ScrollElevatorTopShadow preferences. Any of these preferences may be set individually or with any of the others including ScrollTopShadow.
ScrollBottomShadow: <by default this is computed from the foreground and background preferences>
The color which will be used to draw the bottom shadow of the matte, or the upper shadow of the bar(s). Setting this will also have the effect of setting the ScrollMatteBottomShadow, ScrollBarBottomShadow, ScrollButtonBottomShadow, and ScrollElevatorBottomShadow preferences. Any of these preferences may be set individually or with any of the others including ScrollBottomShadow.
Note: All the preferences above (up to scrollforeground) can be applied to individual parts of the scroll bar or surrounding area (matte) by replacing the string "Scroll" at the beginning of each preference with one of the following (without the quotes):
"ScrollMatte"(for the area around the document and the scroll bar(s))
"ScrollBar"(to change the appearance of the bar itself)
"ScrollButton"(to change the appearance of the buttons)
"ScrollElevator"(to change the appearance of the elevator (visible region))
"ScrollDot"(to change the appearance of the dot (selected region))
ScrollbarWidth:20 (18 when mimicking)
Determines the width of the scroll bar .
DotWidth:6 (8 when mimicking)
The width (in pixels) of the rectangle which indicates where the cursor is or where the selection is.
ScrollWindowPadding:1 (0 when mimicking)
The space in pixels between the border around the document and scroll bar(s) and the document and scroll bar(s) themselves.
ElevatorWidth:16 (18 when mimicking)
The width of the elevator in pixels.
ScrollButtonSize:16 (12 when mimicking)
The height (or width for horizontal scroll bars) of the buttons at either end of the scroll bar(s). Note: changing this may cause the reaction of the scroll bar on left and right clicks to be off by one or more lines.
ScrollButtonPadding:4 (-1 when mimicking)
The space in pixels between the buttons and the bar.
ScrollbarPosition: (no default)
For text scroll bars this determines whether the scroll bar appears on the left or the right. If it is set to be "right"(capitalization matters here) the scroll bar will appear on the right of the text, if it is set to anything else the scroll bar will appear to the left.
StartScrollTime: 1000
This value is used to set the time interval before repeat scrolling kicks in. The value is in milliseconds. A value of 0 indicates that no repeat scrolling is to be used.
ContScrollTime: 150
This controls how fast repeat scrolling in small increments (line size) occurs. Again it is in milliseconds.
MaxContScrollTime: 650
MinContScrollTime: integer
This controls how fast repeat scrolling in large (page size) increments occurs. Again it is in milliseconds. Increments between these two amounts is done by interpolating between those two values.
ButtonRepeatTime: 100
AdjustScroll: no
If this is set to "yes," then the increment for repeat scrolling is constantly recalculated relative to the position of the mouse. With it on you can start scrolling by pages and then move the cursor up toward the top of the scroll bar to do more fine scrolling when they get close. If it is false then the repeat scrolling increment is determined by where you first press the mouse down in the scroll bar and can not be readjusted.
ThumbScroll: yes
If this is set to "yes," then the image being scrolled will be updated as the user thumbs in the scroll bar with the left mouse down. The right mouse down will always thumb without updating the image.
MotifScrollBars: no
Turns on "Motif" style behavior for the mouse in the bar, and moves the scroll bar on most text documents to the right hand side. If set to yes the mouse behaves as follows:
Clicking with the left mouse button will scroll one screen in the direction of the click relative to the elevator.
Clicking with the right mouse button will immediately move the elevator to the indicated position and then allow you to drag it, or simply release the mouse button to leave the elevator where you clicked.
All other operations are as described above.
ScrollClass: (none)
This preference can be used to specify an alternate "Class" to provide scrolling support. Currently only one alternative is provided, this is the scrolling package provided in previous releases of ATK. To use this alternative see the help file on "oscroll".
Old Scroll Bars
Note: these are only the preferences unique to the old scroll bars and don't include the preferences which affect both the old and new scroll bars unless the effect is different between the two systems.
MotifScrollBars:no
Determines if "Motif-style" scroll bars are desired.
ScrollbarWidth:20 (for normal scroll bars), 15 (for "Motif" style scroll bars)
Determines the width of the scroll bar.
DotWidth:7
The width of the rectangle which indicates where the cursor is or where the selection is.
CornerShade:8
A number from 0 (white) to 16 (black) indicating what shade pattern should be used for the corners of the window which are left when two scroll bars are being used (for instance when viewing a raster or table).
EndZoneShade:2
Same as CornerShade but for the end regions of the scroll bars.
BackgroundShade:4
Same as CornerShade but for the region of the scroll bar not covered by the elevator (the normally white rectangle which indicated what portion of the document is visible).
ElevatorShade:0
Same as CornerShade but for the interior of the rectangle which shows which portion of the document is visible.
Console Preferences
console.default: monitor
Controls which console appears if you type console at the command prompt without supplying a console name. The console called "monitor" is used by default, but there other consoles to choose from. The easiest way to see them is to choose one from the Consoles menu card of a Console window. See the console help document for more details.
console.MailFrom: off
Controls whether or not the Console posts a message telling you whom each arriving mail message is from. It does when preference is set to "on." The default is "off."
console.tfhc: off
This stands for "twenty-four hour clock". When set to "on," it reports the time in 24 hour time (i.e. "13:00" instead of "1:00 pm").
vmfreq: 1
diskfreq: 60
These preferences are for example programs from Nathaniel Borenstein's book (see the Programming overview for how to find the examples). In real ATK Consoles, these values are drawn from the LACC file, not preferences.
Fonts and Template Preferences
In Andrew font specifications, you should run together the font name and the point size as a single word. Putting a space between them in a preference will lead to a Start Up error.
ShowColorStyles: <defaults to false on monochrome, true otherwise>
If true, color styles will be rendered in color on a color display, and will be dithered on a monochrome display. If false, color styles will be ignored and the text will be displayed in the current foreground color. Note: monochrome users should use only white or black as a foreground/background color to avoid dithering.
justified: on
Controls whether text inside windows is justified on the right edge as well as the left. The default "on" setting justifies both margins; a setting of "off" gives a ragged right margin.
bodyfont: Andy12
Determines the font in all windows (and in printed documents, unless you set the print.bodyfont preference described in a later section). The default is Andy 12, a 12 point font with serifs.
It is possible to set a different font for each program (EZ, Typescript and so on) by specifying the program name and putting a period between it and bodyfont, as in the following examples:
ez.bodyfont: AndySans10
typescript.bodyfont: AndyType10f
The first preference means EZ will use a font that is smaller than the default (10 points versus 12) and has no serifs. The second preference means that Typescript will use a 10 point fixed-width font (indicated both by the word "Type" and the "f"), which makes columns line up in the Typescript window.
fontpath: /usr/andrew/fonts:/usr/local/fonts
NOTE: this is only used under the Andrew Window Manager, not under X11.
Determines the directories where all programs look to find fonts. You can add other directories to the default path, including ones where you store fonts you have made yourself. To do so, place the full pathname(s) at the start of the list, separating each with a colon but no space. Programs look for fonts in the order of the directories in the list, stopping when they find the required font. It is recommended that you include the defaults in your own list.
ATKTemplatePath: /usr/andrew/lib/tpls
Determines the directories where EZ looks for templates for text documents. You can add other directories to the default path, including ones where you store templates you have made yourself. To do so, place the full pathname(s) at the start of the list, separating each with a colon but no space. Programs look for templates in the order of the directories in the list, stopping when they find the required template. It is recommended that you include the defaults in your own list.
AnnounceFontSubstitutions: no
This is used by the X11 version of ATK to tell you when a font substitution is happening. When set to "yes," if a program asks for one font, it doesn't exist and another font is used, you will be notified.
AddFontPath: yes
This is used by the X11 version of ATK to decide whether to try to automatically add the appropriate font directory to the X server's font path. The appropriate directory is usually $ANDREWDIR/X11fonts, but may be set with the AndrewFontDir preference or the ANDREWFONTDIR environment variable.
AndrewFontDir: <$ANDREWDIR/X11fonts>
This is used by the X11 version of ATK to decide what directory to add to the X server's font path to try to get the Andrew fonts.
ErrorsToConsole: yes
This is used by the X11 version of ATK to decide whether or not to redirect error messages printed to stderr to the ATK console program or not. The ATKCONSOLEHOST environment variable can also be used to direct error messages to a console on a different host than that indicated by $DISPLAY. It can also be used to indicate that a different port number should be used. e.g. setenv ATKCONSOLEHOST foo:9000 would send error messages to the host foo, at port 9000.
EZ Preferences
ez.AllowKeyToggleToViMode: no
In addition to responding to the EMACS editor command set, EZ has the option of responding to the command set of the Berkeley VI editor. When this preference is set to true, the keycommand <ESC>t will toggle between command sets. This is so you can switch between VI command set and EMACS command set. It is set to false by default so beginning users don't suddenly discover EZ no longer behaves. EZ can be made to come up in VI mode by setting the editor preference, or by setting an environment variable.
ez.AskAboutSymlinks: no
If you are editing a file which is really a symbolic link to another file, what should EZ do when you ask to save the buffer? Should it follow the symbolic link and replace the pointed-to file? Or should it replace the link itself with a new, real file? Turning this preference on will result in EZ asking you which option you prefer the first time you try to save a file which is really a symbolic link. See the ez.ClobberSymlinks preference, below.
ez.ClobberSymlinks: yes
Controls whether saving a buffer whose file is a symbolic link results in replacing the link with the file contents (the default), or replacing the link's target. See the ez.AskAboutSymlinks preference, above.
ez.OverwriteFiles: yes
If this is set to "no" and you are trying to save a file under an new name that already exists, the system will prompt the user telling him that the file already exists and do you want to overwrite it. Its default value is "yes."
ez.Editor: NULL
It is comparatively easy for a user who prefers the VI command set to the EMACS command set to have EZ start up with the VI command set by default. Either set ez.Editor to vi or set any one of the following environment variables to the string vi: EDITOR, EDIT, ED, FCEDIT, VISUAL.
ez.bodyfont: Andy12
Controls the size and appearance of the font used for text in the EZ window. The default is a 12 point variable width font with serifs. Within EZ, overrides the bodyfont preference, if any.
ez.BackupExtension: <name of extension>
Determines whether EZ makes backup files automatically, and if so, what extension it puts on them. The default is no backup files unless you include this preference and specify an extension. If you provide an extension, then when you save a file, EZ stores both a new version of your file and a backup version, which does not include the changes you made in the current EZ session; it puts your specified extension on the backup version. Note that the period (".") that usually precedes extensions is not included automatically. If you want a period (as in .BAK), be sure to type it in the name of your extension. Note also that this kind of backup file is different from a checkpoint file, which EZ does create by default.
ez.CheckpointExtension:.CKP
Determines what extension appears on checkpoint files. Note that the period (".") that usually precedes extensions is not included automatically. If you want a period (as in the default .CKP), be sure to type it in the name of your extension.
ez.CheckpointDirectory: <directory name>
Determines in which directory checkpoint files are written. The default operation is to save the checkpoint file in the same directory as the file being edited. By setting the checkpoint directory, you can cause all checkpoint files to be saved into that directory.
ez.CheckpointGawdyNames: no
Where the user has specified a CheckpointDirectory preference and this preference has been enabled, checkpoint filenames will take this form:
<CheckpointDirectory>/ #uid.@ful@path@name#.<CheckpointExtension>
where @ful@path@name is the name of the file being checkpointed.
ez.CheckpointMinimum: 120
Determines how much time must elapse since a change was made to a buffer before EZ will checkpoint the buffer and save the contents in a .CKP file. (See the ez-buffers help document to learn about how buffers work.) Specifying a larger value increases the delay between occurrences of checkpointing. The default value is 120 seconds.
ez.CheckpointInterval: 30
Determines how often EZ checks to see if a buffer has been modified for the length of time required by ez.CheckpointMinimum. It is not recommended that you change this preference; in particular, decreasing it only draws processing resources away from more important functions. Change ez.CheckpointMinimum instead. The default value is 30 seconds.
ez.MaxinitWindows: 2
Tells EZ how many windows it can open during startup. (You can open multiple windows by typing ez followed by multiple file names.) Any files over the maxinit number will be placed into buffers instead of windows. The default is 2 windows.
ResizableMessageLine: yes
Determines whether the user will be allowed to resize the message line.
DynamicMessageLineSize: no
Determines whether the message line will grow and shrink based on it's contents.
MinimumMessageLines: 1
Sets the minimum size of the message line area in lines.
MessageLineBackgroundColor:
MessageLineForegroundColor:
MessageLineBoundaryColor:
These set the colors of the message line. The defaults are the window foreground and background colors; the default MessageLineBoundaryColor is the window foreground color.
ez.MessageTimeout: 15
Controls the length of time messages appear in the message area at the bottom of the EZ window. A message will remain on the message line until MessageTimeout seconds have elapsed (unless another message replaces it). After the required time has elapsed, the message disappears when you type any keystroke into the window. The default is 15 seconds.
ez.CompileCommand: build -k
This preference is used in the compile package in EZ. It specifies a default to use for ^X^E.
ez.tagfilename: tags
The default file name to use for handling tags in ez. Its default is "tags".
ez.EzdiffOptionPrompt: yes
ez.EzdiffOptions: <none>
These preferences are for the ezdiff package. They specify what the diff options should be, and whether you get prompted to change them each time.
ez.UseCurrentWorkingDirectory: no
When this is set to "yes" , visit file will use the current working directory for the root of the prompt for a new file name. If it is "no" it uses the directory of the file currently being edited in that window. The default is "no."
DirectoryEditor: dired
This specifies the ATK editor which is invoked if you edit a directory (rather than a file.) Currently, dired is the only editor available.
ez.expertmode: off
Determines whether you can make recursive edits when using the Query Replace and Spellchecking features of EZ. The default setting of "off" means that recursive edits are not possible; a setting of "on" makes them possible.
Enabling recursive edits means that you can temporarily "leave" the spellchecking or query replace functions to make more extensive revisions than is allowed within those functions. To enter recursive edit mode in the Spellchecker, type e; in Query Replace, type r. The word(s) selected by the routine are deselected, and you can edit any part of the document you choose. When you are finished editing, press ^C (Ctrl-c) to re-enter the Spellchecker or Query Replace routine.
Note that the routines re-start from the current position of the text caret. If you have moved the text caret past some misspelled words or instances of the string being replaced, they will not be found. Also, the word that was selected when you entered recursive edit mode will not be corrected or replaced, so you must make that change by hand.
ez.justified: on
Controls whether the text in the window display and printed versions of an EZ document is justified on the right edge as well as the left. The default "on" setting justifies both margins; a setting of "off" gives a ragged right margin. Within EZ, overrides the more general justified preference, if they disagree.
ez.DefaultStartUpFile:<filename>
If you have this preference specified, when you just type 'ez' without a filename, EZ will bring up the specified filename in whatever directory you are in.
ContentsList:chapter,section,subsection,paragraph,function
Specifies the title formats included in both the Table of Contents window and a printed table of contents. See the ez-contents help file for more information. Title formats to be included in the Table of Contents can also be set on a command line for ezprint .
AutoEnumerate:no
When set to yes, this will automatically enumerate printed Table of Contents. See the ez-contents help file.
PrintContents:no
When set to yes, a table of contents will be included in each printed document, regardless of whether or not you open a Table of Contents window. A "yes" setting can be overridden by a -cn switch to ezprint . See the ez-contents help file.
tmacfile: pathname
Allows you to specify an alternate tmac file for ezprint to use when printing.
ez.hyphenate: no
If set to "yes", EZ will use hyphenation when printing.
ez.StylesIncludeEnd: yes
ez.StylesIncludeBeginning: no
Changing these defaults changes how text behaves when you add it to a styled region. Normally when you have text within a style, like bold, when you add to the beginning of the style the text you add is not in the style. When add to the end of the styled region, the text you add is in the style. (Hence the defaults listed above.) However, if you add text at the beginning of a paragraph, you will always pick up the style of the paragraph, regardless of the setting of ez.StylesIncludeBeginning.
ez.WriteForDOS: <defaults to the value appropriate to the platform EZ is running on> (YES for OS/2, NO for UNIX)
When a NEW file is created and saved, this preference determines whether the file is saved with CR+LF sequences for each newline (a DOS and OS/2 convention). For EXISTING files, ez leaves them as they were and this preference has no effect.
ez.CheckForDOSFormat: yes <altername name: CheckForDOSText>
When EZ loads a "DOS format" file (CR+LF for each newline), it strips the CR characters off, making it considerably easier to edit. It adds them back in to the saved file automatically.
If this preference is turned off, EZ will display the CR characters as "soft newlines", making "DOS format" text files appear doublespaced. Turning it off would be most useful for editing NON-textual files where CR characters have some significance.
Messages Preferences
The preferences listed here are recent additions which have not yet been integrated into the Set Options menu in messages itself. Choose the Set Options menu on the Other menu card in Messages to see the other preferences which can be set.
Composition Window Preferences
SendOptionsStyle: 4
This integer preference specifies which "look" should be used for the send options buttons. The default of 4 indicates "OSF/Motif" (TM) appearance. The supported styles are:
1. Double Boxed.
2. Three Dimensional.
3. Plain Box.
4. OSF/Motif (TM).
SendOptionsFont: andysans10b
The font used to draw the labels on the options buttons in the message composition window.
SendOptionsForeground: <defaults to the foreground color for the application, as set by the foregroundcolor preference>
The color in which the main features of the plainer buttons (see SendOptionsStyle) will be drawn and from which several other colors will be computed to provide a "3D" effect for the "Three Dimensional" and "OSF/Motif" (TM) style buttons.
SendOptionsBackground: <defaults to the background color for the application, as set by the backgroundcolor preference>
The color in which the background of the plainer buttons (see SendOptionsStyle) will be drawn and from which several other colors will be computed to provide a "3D" effect for the "Three Dimensional" and "OSF/Motif" (TM) style buttons.
SendOptionsTop: <by default this is computed from the foreground and background preferences>
The color which will be drawn in the background behind a button's label. (For the "3D-ish" buttons.)
SendOptionsTopShadow: <by default this is computed from the foreground and background preferences>
The color which will be used to draw the upper shadow of a button when it is "inactive" (ie, not pressed). (For the "3D-ish" buttons.)
SendOptionsBottomShadow: <by default this is computed from the foreground and background preferences>
The color which will be used to draw the lower shadow of a button when it is "inactive" (ie, not pressed). (For the "3D-ish" buttons.)
SendOptionsLabelForeground: <defaults to the foreground color for the application, as set by the foregroundcolor preference>
The color in which the actual label of a button will be drawn in.
SendOptionsLabelBackground: <defaults to the background color for the application, as set by the backgroundcolor preference>
The color of the shadow around the label of a button. (For the "3D-ish" buttons.)
Folders Window/Panel Options
FolderOptionsStyle: 4
This integer preference specifies which "look" should be used for the folder options buttons. The default of 4 indicates "OSF/Motif" (TM) appearance. The supported styles are:
1. Double Boxed.
2. Three Dimensional.
3. Plain Box.
4. OSF/Motif (TM).
FolderOptionsFont: andysans12b
The font used to draw the labels on the options buttons in the message composition window.
FolderOptionsForeground: <defaults to the foreground color for the application, as set by the foregroundcolor preference>
The color in which the main features of the plainer buttons (see FolderOptionsStyle) will be drawn and from which several other colors will be computed to provide a "3D" effect for the "Three Dimensional" and "OSF/Motif" (TM) style buttons.
FolderOptionsBackground: <defaults to the background color for the application, as set by the backgroundcolor preference>
The color in which the background of the plainer buttons (see FolderOptionsStyle) will be drawn and from which several other colors will be computed to provide a "3D" effect for the "Three Dimensional" and "OSF/Motif" (TM) style buttons.
FolderOptionsTop: <by default this is computed from the foreground and background preferences>
The color which will be drawn in the background behind a button's label. (For the "3D-ish" buttons.)
FolderOptionsTopShadow: <by default this is computed from the foreground and background preferences>
The color which will be used to draw the upper shadow of a button when it is "inactive" (ie, not pressed). (For the "3D-ish" buttons.)
FolderOptionsBottomShadow: <by default this is computed from the foreground and background preferences>
The color which will be used to draw the lower shadow of a button when it is "inactive" (ie, not pressed). (For the "3D-ish" buttons.)
FolderOptionsLabelForeground:<defaults to the foreground color for the application, as set by the foregroundcolor preference>
The color in which the actual label of a button will be drawn in.
FolderOptionsLabelBackground: <defaults to the background color for the application, as set by the backgroundcolor preference>
The color of the shadow around the label of a button. (For the "3D-ish" buttons.)
Andrew Message System Preferences
The preferences that are not prefixed with a program name will affect all Andrew Message System programs (see the mail help document to find out what those programs are). There are also "options" other than preferences that can change the way Messages behaves. You can set these options by choosing Set Options from the Other menu card in Messages. To find out about these options, you can either read the help that appears in the Messages window when you choose Set Options, or see the messages-customization help file.
mailsendingformat: ask
Controls whether AMS clients write out data in the old (ATK) format or a MIME-compliant format. MIME is a proposed Internet standard for multipart, multimedia mail. The possible values for this preference are:
"ask" -- WHENEVER formatted mail is about to be sent out, regardless of any format-forcing codes in a user's .AMS_aliases file, give the user the choice of the old Andrew or the new MIME format.
"andrew" -- behave as before, asking the user about sending formatted mail to non-local recipients, and using the old ATK data format whenever formatted mail is sent.
"mime" -- behave as before, asking the user about sending formatted mail to non-local recipients, but use the new MIME data format whenever formatted mail is sent.
"mime-force" -- Always use the MIME format, and don't even bother to ask about stripping to plain text. This should become an increasingly plausible option as time goes on, if MIME support becomes widespread, because the MIME format Andrew generates always begins with a readable text-only version of the message.
forcemetamail: <MIME type [,MIME type] ...>
Certain MIME types are, by default, converted into Andrew insets. In some cases this may be wrong -- e.g. if Andrew's alink object doesn't work on your machine, but metamail has been configured to do something reasonable with audio & telephones. In such cases, you may use the "ForceMetamail" preference to give a comma-separated list of MIME types that should always be passed to metamail rather than converted to Andrew, e.g. "*.ForceMetamail:foo,audio,bar".
mspath : $DEFAULT
Determines which directories the message server (which underlies all the Andrew Message System programs) checks in, to see if they have new messages. The default value of $DEFAULT includes elements that refer to three path elements (directories). The first, $MAIL, is your personal mail folder. The second, $OFFICIAL, is the folder containing the bulletin boards that appear under the official parent. The third, $OTHER, is the folder containing the other public bulletin boards (the Andrew and network bboards) that are available. The default setting presents folders to you in the following order: MAIL, OFFICIAL, and OTHER. You can change the order by breaking the elements up. For example, to have official bboards presented in front your mail folder, you would use:
mspath:$OFFICIAL:$MAIL:$OTHER
You can also define a mspath variable to specify which tree you are referring to (if, for example, bboards in different trees have the same name), using something like the following:
mspath: $OFFICIAL:[jello]/afs/andrew.cmu.edu/usr10/jbRo/.MESSAGES_PUBLIC:$OTHER
Then, this user could refer to [jello]andrew.hints to refer to a private bboard in jbRo's account called andrew.hints.
Subsorder: <folder specifications>
Controls how your messages folders are ordered when a Messages System program presents them to you in a list. For an explanation of the syntax of this preference, and examples which illustrate it, see the ams-subsorder help file.
UseFootnote: yes
By default, minor messages headers are now printed as footnotes. This behavior can be turned off by setting this preference to "no."
PrintMinorHeaders: yes
You can turn off all printing of the "fine print" headers by setting this to "no."
Vui.editor: <path>
This preference specifies the editor VUI will use when you want to edit a message.
AlwaysPrintImmediately:no
Controls whether print requests from within Messages are sent to the printer as soon as possible. The default is setting of "no" means that the Message System program waits until you quit it before printing any messages, putting them all together in one print job, and giving you only one header page. A setting of "yes" means each message is sent as soon as possible after you choose to print it, giving you a header page for each.
DelayPrinting: no
Controls when your message printing requests get sent to a printer. With a "no" setting, Messages waits until it thinks your machine load is "light" before printing messages. With a "yes" setting, the message program you are running will never print the messages you want printed until you quit the program. With the option set to "yes," you can force a print at any time while you are using the program by typing the following at the command prompt:
cui quit
(which starts and quits CUI, forcing the pending prints to go out).
bccto: <folder name>
Blind copies are sent to the folder you specify. If you do not have the preference, blind copies will be sent to your Mailbox. To have blind copies sent to a folder other than your mail folder, create a folder for your copies (see messages-folders for information on how to create and manipulate folders) and enter the name of the folder after this preference. For example, to send to a folder called "carbons" you would have
*.bccto: carbons
bcc: no
This preference line is obsolete. See the help file for individual Andrew Message System programs to determine how to keep blind copies.
messages.SurrogateHelpFile: <pathname>
Allows you to replace the help message that appears in the body area of the Messages window on startup. You can replace the message with any file you want to.
messages.motdfile: <pathname>
This can be set so that some file other than the motd file (message of the day) will be shown in the captions region on startup.
PersonalMailCollectionCommand:<pathname>
This preference will automatically run the program specified by the pathname before checking your Mailbox. For example, you could put the following script into a file:
#!/bin/csh -f
cd
set MF=~/Mailbox/CAL.`hostname`.$$
set TF=/tmp/CAL.$$
if (-e $MF) then
echo I do not want to overwrite a mailbox file. > /dev/console
exit
endif
calendar > $TF
if (! -z $TF) then
(echo From: Calendar Job; echo Subject: `head -1 $TF`...; echo To: My Own Calendar; echo ""; echo Here is the calendar output for today; cat $TF) > $MF
else
echo Nothing going on today > /dev/console
endif
Then, if you put the full pathname to this script after this preference, every time you checked your mail, the calendar program will run first and turn all calendar events into pieces of mail for you. Unfortunately, this mechanism is a little slow, so you may not want to do this.
DoPrefetch: yes
If set to no, AMS programs will not prefetch files from the next bulletin board on your list of changed folders. The default is yes.
TurnOffCheckPointingAndIUnderstandTheDangersForMessages:no
If set to yes, AMS programs will not checkpoint your Messageserver state until you hit the "Commit" button, which appears near the Punt button once have turned this option on. If you have write access to shared folders, or run multiple messageservers (or multiple non-snapified user interfaces) at the same time, you should not turn this preference on. The default is no.
{folders,captions,bodies,messages,sendmessage}.{height,width}:number
The number (in pixels) determines the size of the window specified. For example, if you started Messages with a -w switch to cause it to put the folder, captions and message body in separate windows, the following preferences would set the window sizes:
folders.height:100
folders.width:550
captions.height:200
captions.width:500
bodies.height:400
bodies.width:600
If any of the numbers is less than 0, the default size for new windows will be used.
Both a height and width preference need to be specified for either to take effect. (A "folders.height" preference is meaningless without "folders.width".)
MailboxDir: full path to directory
The directory listed is the one from which AMS programs will read mail. This is useful if a delivery system (for example, a system other than AMS delivery) puts mail into a directory other than ~/Mailbox. Note that there is also an AndrewSetup option ``MailboxName'' that specifies the name of the subdirectory in every user's home directory from which AMS programs will read mail, and to which AMS delivery will deliver mail.
MailboxFile: mailfilename
Most users will not need to set this at all; this preference is for use on standard Unix systems. It tells AMS where to find your "Mailbox" file, if you are reading your mail out of some unusual file name, the name of which couldn't be generated by appending the ``userid'' string to some constant prefix (/usr/spool/mail or /usr/mail for SysV systems). If you have a ``MAIL'' environment variable, that's used as the name of the in-mailfile. Otherwise, AMS looks for this preference and uses its value as the name of the in-mailfile.
If both of those fail to find a name for an in-mailfile, AMS generates a name by taking the AMS_MailBoxPrefix variable from AndrewSetup and appending the user's userid to it. (The AMS_MailBoxPrefix name is by default either /usr/spool/mail or /usr/mail, depending on whether system.h says that this is a SysV-like system or not.)
AMShome: cell or workstation name
You only need this preference if you are running the Andrew Message System in one of the cells other than andrew.cmu.edu. This preference is used to determine the location of files and directories that AMS programs need in order to work.
The value for this preference should be either the name of an AFS cell in which you have authentication (e.g. "cs.cmu.edu"), the name of the workstation on which you're running, or the single characters * or &, which stand for, respectively, the name of the workstation on which you're running and the name of the cell to which your workstation is connected. If the value of this string is an AFS cell in which you're authenticated, the AMS will read the white pages for that cell to locate your home dir in that cell and will use that directory as the location for its other auxiliary files. If the value of this string is the name of your workstation, the AMS will use getpwuid(getuid())->pw_home as the location for your other auxiliary files.
Your From: address will be determined analogously: if your AMS home is an AFS cell in which you have authentication, your From: address is determined from that authentication. If your AMS home is the name of your workstation, your From: address is determined via getpwuid(getuid()).
If you have no AMShome preference, either the connected-cell name or the workstation name will be used as the name of your AMS home, depending on how the local workstation administrators have indicated that the choice should default. (They do this with the AMS_DefaultToAFSCellMail value in the AndrewSetup file.)
AMSTempFileLocation: /tmp
The preference can be used to set the directory in which the messageserver's temporary files will be created. The default for this is /tmp, but you can set it to some other fully-qualified directory name (that is, you can NOT use a tilde instead of your home directory path).
deathknell:
The idea behind the ``message server death knell'' is that after a period of inactivity in which no SNAP calls are received, the (separate) message server will kill itself. Message-server clients can spawn new message servers transparently, for which the only penalty paid is the additional time taken, so the suicide of a message server is reasonably harmless and in general affects only the latency of response to the next request. At the same time, message servers are not always told to kill themselves when a client terminates. Thus, the value of the death knell is a tradeoff between response latency to SNAP calls and the time taken for a truly inactive message server to exit.
Here are some AndrewSetup values for death knells (expressed as an integral number of seconds):
AMS_InitialDeathKnell, default 30*60 (30 minutes): the initial value for the message server's DeathKnell value, expressed in seconds. A message server will time out after this many seconds of inactivity.
AMS_MaximumDeathKnell, default 1*60*60 (one hour): the maximum limit for MS_SetDeathKnell's time parameter, expressed in seconds. A value of zero means not to limit it.
The message server initializes the DeathKnell value that it uses to the preference, where the default value is the AMS_InitialDeathKnell value from AndrewSetup.
SwapPerformanceTimeout: 0
SwapPerformaceBackoff: 0
Two integer preferences, with default values of 0. They allow some tuning of the performance of the separate message server.
The SwapPerformanceTimeout is a number of seconds to wait for the next SNAP call to the separate message server, but it is only used after SwapPerformanceBackoff timeouts (waits without a SNAP call received) have occurred. Otherwise, a one-minute wait time is used.
cuimslog: no
If the Boolean preference value ``cuimslog'' is set to "yes", the message server will write a timing log of its actions to the file /tmp/cuims.log . This file will contain a trace of the time taken to execute each message server call. It is intended for maintenance and development use.
AMS_RemoteLogin:
If the AMS_RemoteLogin preference or AndrewSetup value is set (a string), it is used as the name of the machine on which a remote message server should be run (giving an explicit password for the remote machine). This differs from the AMS_RemoteServer preference in that AMS_RemoteLogin always asks for a password to use in connecting to the remote message server (using the password-based method of connecting), while the AMS_RemoteServer method, which is only available under AFS, copies the user's AFS authentication tokens and uses them to initiate the remote message server (using the token-based method of connecting). The default value for AMS_RemoteLogin is the null string, and when not running AFS this causes the ``Name of host to run message server for you'' and ``User id on host ...'' and ``Password'' questions to be asked; on AFS systems, the default (null) value causes the AMS_RemoteServer preference to be checked.
AMS_RemoteServer:
Specifies a machine on which to run a remote message server. The machine must have a certain configuration; see the ams help file.
Typescript Preferences
typescript.shmenu: <pathname>
You can reset this preference with the path to your own shell menu file. (Remember, you can also read a shmenu file by putting a .shmenu file in your home directory. You can then use this preference to override that file when needed.)
typescript.maxsize: 10000
You can reset this preference to represent the number, in characters, that typescript honors for the size of its scrollback buffer. The default is 10000.
typescript.scrollpercent: 67
This controls how much the Typescript scrolls when the cursor moves off the bottom of the window. The number is expressed as a percentage: 100 means that it scrolls down an entire window-height; 0 means that it doesn't scroll at all.
Raster Preferences
RastersInitiallyShrunk:off
Determines whether raster insets in text and table documents initially appear full size or shrunken down to a few rows of pixels, which can make scrolling simpler. With the default "off" setting, raster insets appear full size. With a setting of "on," only the top 21 rows of each raster will appear at first. To expand the raster fully, simply click on it. You can then reshrink the raster by choosing the Shrink to Button option, which appears on the Raster Ops menu card when you set this option "on."
Table Preferences
table.bodyfontfamily: Andysans
Used in table as the name of the font to use in displaying labels.
Printing Preferences
formatcommand: troff -T$PRINTERTYPE /tmp/%s.n |
Specifies a pipeline of formatting programs for producing output for preview or print programs. By default, the pipeline shown above will process your documents through troff with an output device type appropriate to the printer you will be using.
Add this preference only when you need to include one of the troff pre-processors (e.g. pic, eqn, tbl) in your formatting pipeline. Troff, or any one of the troff pre-processors which has a -T switch, should use $PRINTERTYPE to automatically select an output device type appropriate for the printer you have chosen.
previewcommand: string
pscprintcommand: string
printcommand: string
These three preferences allow the user to specify what command to run when printing/previewing. The preview command states what to run when asking to preview a file. The pscprintcommans is used when asking to print a postscript file, and the printcommand is normally used when asking to print a ditroff output file.
print.Bodyfont: Andy12
Sets the font for printing output of all Andrew programs, including EZ, Help, and Typescript. If you do not change the default for this preference but have changed the generic bodyfont preference or a programname.bodyfont preference, they will override this default of Andy12. If you do change from Andy12here, your choice will override those other bodyfont preferences for printed output.
print.Copy: yes
Determines whether the printing software puts a copy of files for which you request printing into your PrintDir before printing them. With the default setting of "yes," this happens. If set to "no," files go directly from the Andrew File System to the printer.
print.Delete: yes
Determines what happens to a file in your PrintDir after it is printed. With the default setting of "yes," it is deleted automatically. With a setting of "no," it is not.
print.Deliver: filename
Specifies the name to print on the "File:" line on the cover sheet of your printouts. The default is the name of the file, but you may change it to any character string you wish.
print.Duplex: no
Determines whether the printing software processes a document for printing on one side of the paper ("simplex") or both sides ("duplex"). The default of "no" makes EZ documents print simplex. If set to "yes," documents will be formatted for a duplex printer, but they will print out duplex only if the printer you choose can do duplex printing.
print.Printdir: your home directory pathname/PrintDir
Specifies the print directory that the system uses to store files that are waiting to be loaded into the print queue. By default it is the subdirectory of your home directory called "PrintDir." You can change the pathname to any directory for which you have write access, and/or change the name of the directory from "PrintDir" to something else. If you do either of this things, you must of course create a directory by that name.
print.spooldir: printername
This preference is obsolete. Use print.printer instead.
print.printer: printername
This entry specifies the name of the printer where your print jobs will be sent. You can override this preference for a particular print request using the -P option in ezprint. See the ezprint help document for details.
Help Preferences
help.searchpath:<full path to directory: full path to directory>
Provides a path of directories for Help to search in addition to the standard help directories. By default, only the system directories are searched. This preference allows you to put help documents into a personal directory and make them available to a small group of users. For example, to include the searchpath for the Computer Club help files (userid "cl0x") you would add the following line to your preferences:
help.searchpath: /afs/andrew.cmu.edu/usr0/cl0x/man
so that whenever they start Help, they will see the information in that directory. You can add as many directories as you like to help.searchpath. Be sure to separate them with colons (:) if you add more than one. Using this preference slows the startup time of Help a little; the more directories you add, the slower Help will be when it starts.
help.showpanels: on
Determines whether the Overviews and Programs panels in the Help window are automatically visible when you start Help. They are with the default setting of "on." A setting of "off" means they are not visible, but you can expose them later with the Panelsmenu card.
help.showoverviews: on
help.showhistory: off
help.showprograms: on
Determines whether the individual panels are shown when you start Help. If help.showpanels (above) is "off," then none of the panels will be shown. You can always expose a panel by using the options on the Panels menu card.
help.ExpandedList: off
When set to "on," Help will start up with the Programs panel expanded as if you had done Expand Programs List from the menus.
FLAMES and Eli Preferences
Flames is a Filtering Language for the Andrew Message System. It is a LISP like language that you can learn about in the flames help file.
flamespath: <full path the directory:full path to directory>
elipath: <full path the directory:full path to directory>
These preferences are read by the (load) command in FLAMES. For example, the command (load "foo") with the following preferences
flamespath: /afs/andrew.cmu.edu/usr1/jbRo/flames:/usr/andrew/lib/flames
elipath: /afs/andrew.cmu.edu/usr1/jbRo/eli:/usr/andrew/lib/eli
causes FLAMES to search for files to be loaded in the following places, in the following order, and load the first file it finds:
/afs/andrew.cmu.edu/usr1/jbRo/flames/foo
/afs/andrew.cmu.edu/usr1/jbRo/flames/foo.flames
/usr/andrew/lib/flames/foo
/usr/andrew/lib/flames/foo.flames
/afs/andrew.cmu.edu/usr1/jbRo/eli/foo
/afs/andrew.cmu.edu/usr1/jbRo/eli/foo.eli
/usr/andrew/lib/eli/foo
/usr/andrew/lib/eli/foo.eli
Because FLAMES only loads the first library file it finds, if you want to use more than one library you must include a separate load statement for each library.
Champ Preferences
Champ is a calendar system for keeping track of daily and monthly events. The following preference allows you to include events from more than one source. For instance, you could keep personal events in your own file, and also reference the file containing events for a work group you belong to. See the champ and champ-events-file help documents for details.
champpath: <full pathname to file/events.champ:full pathname to file/events.champ>
Directs Champ to read the files specified and record all of them on your calendar. The usual name for each file is "events.champ," but you can change that by replacing events with another filename.
Bush Preferences
bush.editors: ez:xv:emacs
The default set of editors to be used in the bush prompt for setting the current editor. A colon-separated list of editor names.
Related Topics
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