labrc Files

The format of the two configuration files (~/.labrc in the user's home directory, and labrc in the current working directory) created by labsetup and read by the tools is as follows:

• Lines beginning with # and empty lines are ignored.

• Lines beginning with + are joined with the previous line.

• Different options are placed on different lines.

• The files can have different sections for the different programs. The sections are separated by lines containing the name of the program in square brackets (e.g., [labrun]). The first section, before the first separator, contains global settings for all programs.

For each tool, it is possible to tell the tool to ignore the ~/.labrc and ./labrc file by using the switch --nolabrc.

Example:

~/.labrc

# global settings for all tools
--verbose

# end of global settings

[labrun]
--comment=A comment from ~/.labrc

[labmex]
--Make=gmake

Switches and arguments for the lab-commands are searched for in three places:

1. the command line,
2. a labrc file in the current directory,
3. a .labrc in the user's home directory.

Usually, switches found first override switches found later, e.g., a -x ~/foo in ~/.labrc is overridden by a --exec=~/bar from the command line. Exceptions are switches that accumulate (e.g., the --comment, --cvs, and --env switches of labrun). They are just collected from all sources.