# Supybot configuration system explanation

## Introduction

So you've got your Supybot up and running and there are some things you don't like about it. Fortunately for you, chances are that these things are configurable, and this document is here to tell you how to configure them.

Configuration of Supybot is handled via the Config plugin, which controls runtime access to Supybot's registry (the configuration file generated by the
program you ran). The Config plugin provides a way to get or set variables, to list the available variables, and even to get help for certain variables. Take a moment now to read the help for each of those commands: get, set, list, and help. If you don't know how to get help on those commands, go ahead and read our `GETTING_STARTED` document before this one.

## Supybot's registry

Now, if you're used to the Windows registry, don't worry, Supybot's registry is completely different. For one, it's completely plain text. There's no binary database sensitive to corruption, it's not necessary to use another program to edit it – all you need is a simple text editor. But there is at least one good idea in Windows' registry: hierarchical configuration. Supybot's configuration variables are organized in a hierarchy: variables having to do with the way Supybot makes replies all start with supybot.reply; variables having to do with the way a plugin works all start with supybot.plugins.Plugin (where Plugin is the name of the plugin in question). This hierarchy is nice because it means the user isn't inundated with hundreds of unrelated and unsorted configuration variables.

Some of the more important configuration values are located directly under the base group, supybot. Things like the bot's nick, its ident, etc. Along with these config values are a few subgroups that contain other values. Some of the more prominent subgroups are: plugins (where all the plugin-specific configuration is held), reply (where variables affecting the way a Supybot makes its replies resides), replies (where all the specific standard replies are kept), and directories (where all the directories a Supybot uses are defined). There are other subgroups as well, but these are the ones we'll use in our example.

### Config plugin commands

#### Listing registry contents

Using the Config plugin, you can list the values in a subgroup and get or set any of the values anywhere in the configuration hierarchy. For example, let's say you wanted to see what configuration values were under the supybot (the base group) hierarchy. You would simply issue this command:

<jemfinch|lambda> @config list supybot <supybot> jemfinch|lambda: nick, ident, user, server, password, channels, prefixChars, defaultCapabilities, defaultAllow, defaultIgnore, humanTimestampFormat, externalIP, pipeSyntax, followIdentificationThroughNickChanges, alwaysJoinOnInvite, showSimpleSyntax, maxHistoryLength, nickmods, throttleTime, snarfThrottle, threadAllCommands, pingServer, pingInterval, upkeepInterval, flush, httpPeekSize, and defaultSocketTimeout

These are all the configuration values you can set which are under the base supybot group. Actually, their full names would each have a “supybot.” appended on to the front of them, but it is omitted in the listing in order to shorten the output.

Now, to see all of the available configuration groups under the base supybot group, we simply use the --groups flag to config list:

<jemfinch|lambda> @config list --groups supybot <supybot> jemfinch|lambda: commands, databases, directories, drivers, log, plugins, replies, and reply

These are all the subgroups of supybot. Again, the full name of these would have “supybot.” prepended to them. So really, we have supybot.commands, supybot.databases, etc.

An item can show up in both lists if it is a group that itself has a value. For example, all plugins fall under this category, as their value is a boolean value determining whether or not that plugin is to be loaded when the bot is started.

#### Dealing with registry values

Okay, now that you've used the Config plugin to list configuration variables, it's time that we start looking at individual variables and their values.

##### Built-in help for registry values

The first (and perhaps most important) thing you should know about each configuration variable is that they all have an associated help string to tell you what they represent. So the first command we'll cover is config help. To see the help string for any value or group, simply use the config help command. For example, to see what this supybot.prefixChars configuration variable is all about, we'd do this:

<jemfinch|lambda> @config help supybot.prefixChars <supybot> jemfinch|lambda: Determines what prefix characters the bot will reply to. A prefix character is a single character that the bot will use to determine what messages are addressed to it; when there are no prefix characters set, it just uses its nick.

Pretty simple, eh?

##### Getting/setting registry values

Now, if you're curious what the current value of a configuration variable is, you'll use the config command with one argument, the name of the variable you want to see the value of:

<jemfinch|lambda> @config supybot.prefixChars <supybot> jemfinch|lambda: '@'

To set this value, just stick an extra argument after the name:

<jemfinch|lambda> @config supybot.prefixChars @$ <supybot> jemfinch|lambda: The operation succeeded.

Now, check this out:

<jemfinch|lambda> $config supybot.prefixChars <supybot> jemfinch|lambda: '@$'

Note that we used `$` as our prefix character, and that the value of the configuration variable changed. If I were to use the flush command now, this change would be flushed to the registry file on disk (this would also happen if I made the bot quit, or pressed Ctrl C in the terminal the bot was running in). Instead, I'll revert the change:

<jemfinch|lambda> $config supybot.prefixChars @ <supybot> jemfinch|lambda: The operation succeeded. <jemfinch|lambda> $note that this makes no response.

If you're ever curious what the default for a given configuration variable is, use the config default command:

<jemfinch|lambda> @config default supybot.prefixChars <supybot> jemfinch|lambda: ''

Thus, to reset a configuration variable to its default value, you can simply say:

<jemfinch|lambda> @config supybot.prefixChars [config default supybot.prefixChars] <supybot> jemfinch|lambda: The operation succeeded. <jemfinch|lambda> @note that this does nothing

Simple, eh?

#### Searching the registry

Now, let's say you want to find all configuration variables that might be even remotely related to opping. For that, you'll want the config search command. Check this out:

<jemfinch|lambda> @config search op <supybot> jemfinch|lambda: supybot.plugins.Enforcer.autoOp, supybot.plugins.Enforcer.autoOp.#supybot, supybot.plugins.Enforcer.autoHalfop, supybot.plugins.Enforcer.cycleToGetOps, supybot.plugins.Topic, supybot.plugins.Topic.separator, and supybot.plugins.Relay.topicSync

Sure, it showed up all the topic-related stuff in there, but it also showed you all the op-related stuff, too. Do note, however, that you can only see configuration variables for plugins that you have loaded or that you loaded in the past; if you've never loaded a plugin, there's no way for the bot to know what configuration variables it registers.

Some people might like editing their registry file directly rather than manipulating all these things through the bot. For those people, we offer the config reload command, which reloads both registry configuration and user/channel/ignore database configuration. Just edit the interesting files and then give the bot the config reload command and it'll work as expected. Do note, however, that Supybot flushes his configuration files and databases to disk every hour or so, and if this happens after you've edited your configuration files but before you reload your changes, you could lose the changes you made. To prevent this, set the supybot.flush value to `Off`, and no automatic flushing will occur.

## All done!

Anyway, that's about it for configuration. Have fun, and enjoy your configurable bot!