MarginalHacks album - Configuration Files - Documentation

| A l b u m F o u r - - C o n f i g u r a t i o n F i l e s

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| Table Of Contents Configuration Files Location Of Configuration Files Saving Options
    1:   Configuration Files

    Album behavior can be controlled through command-line options, such as:

    % album -no_known_images

    % album -geometry 133x100

    % album -exif "File: %File name% " -exif "taken with %Camera make%"

    But these options can also be specified in a configuration file:

    # Example configuration file      # comments are ignored
    known_images       0            # known_images=0 is same as no_known_images
    geometry           133x100
    exif               "File: %File name% "
    exif               "taken with %Camera make%"

    The configuration file format is one option per line optionally followed
    by whitespace and the option value.  Boolean options can be set without
    the option value or can be cleared/set with 0 and 1.

    2:   Location Of Configuration Files

    album looks for configuration files in a few locations, in order:

    /etc/album/conf              System-wide settings
    /etc/album.conf              System-wide settings
    $BASENAME/album.conf         In the 'album' install directory
    $HOME/.albumrc               User specific settings
    $HOME/.album.conf            User specific settings
    $DOT/album.conf              User specific (I keep my dot files elsewhere)
    $USERPROFILE/album.conf      For Windows (C:\Documents and Settings\TheUser)

    album also looks for album.conf files inside the photo album directories.
    Sub-albums can also have album.conf which will alter the settings
    from parent directories (this allows you to, for example, have a
    different theme for part of your photo album).  Any album.conf files
    in your photo album directories will configure the album and any sub-albums
    unless overridden by any album.conf settings found in a sub-album.

    As an example, consider a conf for a photo album at 'images/album.conf':

    theme       Dominatrix6
    columns     3

    And another conf inside 'images/europe/album.conf':

    theme       Blue
    crop

    album will use the Dominatrix6 theme for the images/ album and all of
    it's sub-albums except for the images/europe/ album which will use
    the Blue theme.  All of the images/ album and sub-albums will have
    3 columns since that wasn't changed in the images/europe/ album, however
    all of the thumbnails in images/europe/ and all of it's sub-albums
    will be cropped due to the 'crop' configuration setting.

    3:   Saving Options

    Whenever you run an album, the command-line options are saved in
    an album.conf inside the photo album directory.  If an album.conf
    already exists it will be modified not overwritten, so it is safe
    to edit this file in a text editor.

    This makes it easy to make subsequent calls to album.  If you
    first generate an album with:

    % album -crop -no_known_images -theme Dominatrix6 -sort date images/

    Then the next time you call album you can just:

    % album images/

    This works for sub-albums as well:

    % album images/africa/

    Will also find all of the saved options.

    Some 'one-time only' options are not saved for obvious reasons, such
    as -add, -clean, -force, -depth, etc..

    Running album multiple times on the same directories can
    get confusing if you don't understand how options are saved.
    Here are some examples.

    Premises:
    1) Command-line options are processed before conf options found
       in the album directory.

    2) Album should run the same the next time you call it if you
       don't specify any options.

       For example, consider running album twice on a directory:

       % album -exif "comment 1" photos/spain
       % album photos/spain

       The second time you run album you'll still get the "comment 1"
       exif comment in your photos directory.

    3) Album shouldn't end up with multiple copies of the same array
       options if you keep calling it with the same command-line

       For example:

       % album -exif "comment 1" photos/spain
       % album -exif "comment 1" photos/spain

       The second time you run album you will NOT end up with multiple
       copies of the "comment 1" exif comment.

       However, please note that if you re-specify the same options
       each time, album may run slower because it thinks it needs to
       regenerate your html!

    As an example, if you run:

    % album -medium 640x640 photos/spain
      (then later...)
    % album -medium 640x640 photos/spain

    Then the second time will unnecessarily regenerate all your
    medium images.  This is much slower.

    It's better to specify command-line options only the first time
    and let them get saved, such as:

    % album -medium 640x640 photos/spain
      (then later...)
    % album photos/spain

    Unfortunately these constraints mean that any new array options will
    be put at the beginning of your list of -exif options.

    For example:

    % album -exif "comment 1" photos/spain
    % album -exif "comment 2" photos/spain

    The comments will actually be ordered "comment 2" then "comment 1"

    To specify exact ordering, you may need to re-specify all options.

    Either specify "comment 1" to put it back on top:

    % album -exif "comment 1" photos/spain

    Or just specify all the options in the order you want:

    % album -exif "comment 1" -exif "comment 2" photos/spain

    Sometimes it may be easier to merely edit the album.conf file directly
    to make any changes.

    Finally, this only allows us to accumulate options.
    We can delete options using -no and -clear, see the section on Options,
    these settings (or clearings) will also be saved from run to run.
Created by make_faq from Marginal Hacks

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