A configuration file may be used to make certain settings that will apply to all ploticus invocations. A configuration file is not required (unless running in cgi mode ). If no config file is found, standard defaults will be used. Upon execution, ploticus checks for an environment variable called PLOTICUS_CONFIG, which should contain the full path name of your config file.

If a config file is found, it will be read and processed before command line arguments are evaluated, and before script interpretation begins.

Typical uses of a config file are to set up non-English month and weekday names, to set default date or numeric notations, or to use cm instead of inch as the absolute unit.

Many (but not all) of these settings can also be made from within a script using proc settings. A few can also be set from the pl command line. Presidence (from highest to lowest) is: proc settings, command line, config file.

EXAMPLE

SYNTAX

PARAMETERS

The following parameters may be set. Parameters that are not set assume the default value, which is shown in (parentheses).

projectroot:

The directory from which ploticus will operate. This must be specified when using pl in cgi mode.

option: option [arg]

Set a pl command line option (see pl(1) for a list of supported command line options) or prefab parameter. The given command line option will be in effect for all invocations of pl. This parameter may be used as many times as necessary. The only command line args that cannot be set this way are -prefab, -f, and -ver.
Example:

  option: -gif
  option: -viewer xv
  option: delim=comma

varvalue: varname=value

Preset a variable to a value. This may be used as many times as desired within the config file to set various variables. This may also be used to set a variable that will be referenced later in the config file.
Example: varvalue: MODE=normal

putenv: varname=value

Set an environment variable for current process and all subprocesses. This may be used as many times as desired within the config file to set various environment variables. Especially useful when operating in cgi mode since a CGI process often inherits an environment that is not under the developer's control.
Example: putenv: ERRMODE=normal

tmpdir: dirname

The directory that ploticus uses for temporary files. By default this is /tmp. This can also be set in pl.h.
Example: tmpdir: /var/tmp

units: in | cm

The measurement unit to be used for absolute units, either inches or centimeters. Default is in. If this is set in the config file, it will be in effect when command line arguments are evaluated. If set in proc settings, it will not have any effect on command line argument evaluation.
Example: units: cm

numbernotation: standard | us | euro

Specifies how decimal point and thousands separators will be displayed. Default is standard. The following table illustrates:

 standard           us             euro
----------    ------------    -------------
     79              79               79
     79.5            79.5             79,5  
   4321.79         4321.79          4321,79 
  54321          54,321           54.321
 654321.07      654,321.07       654.321,07
1987654321    1,987,654,321    1.987.654.321

numberspacerthreshold: n

Specifies at what numeric magnitude thousands separators will begin to be inserted. Default is 4, and this is used in the above table. If it were set to 3, the third entry in the above table would appear like this:

   4321.79         4,321.79          4.321,79 

font fontname

Make fontname the default font. For more information see fonts.

SVG / XML SETTINGS

Use no to suppress the XML declaration line if the SVG result is to be embedded into a larger XML document. command line argument.

This may be used to set the XML character encoding method. The default is iso-8859-1 which provides Latin and Western European character sets. For Unicode fonts this should be set to utf-8 (for more discussion see the Unicode section in fonts ). command line argument.

SYSTEM ENVIRONMENT

cpulimit:

Number of seconds of CPU time that will be allowed to the pl process or any spawned subprocesses. Default is 10 seconds. Any process exceeding this will abort.

filesizelimit: [DISCONTINUED]

This attribute no longer does anything. It turned out to be more of a problem than a benefit.

DATE-RELATED

dateformat: format

Set the current date format. format must be a date format from the dates manual page that includes month, day, and year, for which arithmetic is supported. To use other arithmetic date formats (such as quarter notation) specify the format in the proc areadef xscaletype or yscaletype attribute.
Example: dateformat: dd-mmm-yyyy

omitweekends omit | adjust | yes | no

Allows date plotting as if Saturdays and Sundays did not exist. Mondays will follow Fridays directly. Useful in certain business and work-related plots.
If omit, any Saturday or Sunday dates encountered will be considered invalid and omitted; however they will not be reported unless the -showbad command line option is used.
If adjust or yes, any Saturday or Sunday dates encountered will be silently adjusted to the nearest weekday.

pivotyear: yy

Set the two digit year that should be used to convert two-digit years to four-digit years. If two-digit years are used, year values that are less than the pivot year are assumed to be 21st century years. Default is 77.
Example: pivotyear: 50

months: list

Specify the three-character month abbreviations to be used, all in lower case, beginning with the first month. Default is the English (jan feb mar apr may jun jul aug sep oct nov dec).
Example (Spanish) (must all be on one line):
months: ene feb mar abr pue jun jul ago sep oct nov dic

months.abbrev: list

short month names, capitalized for presentation, begining with the first month. Default is English (Jan Feb Mar Apr May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec).
Example (Spanish) (must all be on one line):
months.abbrev: Ene Feb Mar Abr Pue Jun Jul Ago Sep Oct Nov Dic

months.full: list

full month names, capitalized for presentation.
Example (Spanish) (must all be on one line):
months.full: Enero Febrero Marcha Abril Pueda Junio Julio Agosto Septiembre Octubre Noviembre Diciembre

weekdays: list

three-character weekday abbreviations, capitalized for presentation, beginning with Sunday.
Example (French): weekdays: Dim Lun Mar Mer Jeu Ven Sam
Example (Spanish): weekdays: Dom Lun Mar Mie Jue Vie Sab

lazydates month|day|both

Allow handling of dates where the day component or the month component is not known. See dates for further discussion of lazy dates.