3 Pies Configuration File

Pies reads its settings and component definitions from one or more configuration files. The default configuration file is named pies.conf and is located in the system configuration directory (in most cases /etc or /usr/local/etc, depending on how the package was compiled). This file uses the native Pies configuration syntax. Apart from this format, the program also understands configuration files in inetd and meta1 formats.

Alternative configuration files may be specified using --config-file (-c command line option), e.g.:

pies --config-file filename

Any number of such options may be given. The files named in --config-file options are processed in order of their appearance in the command line. By default, pies expects configuration files in its native format. This, however, can be changed by using the --syntax=format command line option. This option instructs pies that any configuration files given after it have are written in the specified format. Valid formats are:

‘pies’

Pies native configuration file format.

‘inetd’

Inetd-style configuration format.

‘meta1’

MeTA1-style format.

‘inittab’

Format of the /etc/inittab file (see Init Process).

The configuration file format set by the --syntax option remains in effect for all --config-file options that follow it, up to the end of the command line or the next occurrence of the --syntax option. This means that you can instruct pies to read several configuration files of various formats in a single command line, e.g.:

pies --config-file /etc/pies.conf \
     --syntax=inetd --config-file /etc/inetd.conf \
     --syntax=meta1 --config-file /etc/meta1/meta1.conf

The rest of this chapter concerns the pies native configuration file format. You can receive a concise summary of all configuration directives any time by running pies --config-help. The use of inetd configuration files is covered in inetd and the use of meta1 configuration files is described in include-meta1

If any errors are encountered in the configuration file, the program reports them on the standard error and exits with status 78.

To test the configuration file without actually starting the server, the --lint (-t) command line option is provided. It causes pies to check its configuration file and exit with status 0 if no errors were detected, and with status 78 otherwise.

Before parsing, configuration file is preprocessed using m4 (see Preprocessor). To see the preprocessed configuration without actually parsing it, use -E command line option.