Configuration language

When starting, the xposextool program reads configuration statements from the command line or from configuration files (Configuration file).

Statement syntax

A configuration comprises one or more of the statements globalSettings (Global statements)recordSettings (Recording) playSettings (Playback), copySettings (Copying), andconvertSettings (Conversion). These statements contain nested sub-statements, sub-sub-statements, and sub-sub-sub-statements. If one of these statements is used on a higher level, it specifies a default value for the lower level parameters.

The configuration statements follow some general rules:

Words are separated by arbitrary white space characters. The line structure is irrelevant.

If a word contains white space characters, it has to be surrounded by double quote characters ". This special meaning of the double quote character is overridden by preceding it with a backslash character \.

Keywords are case-insensitive: the meanings of CopySettings and copysettings are identical.

Keywords are not reserved.

Most configuration statements consist of the name of a parameter and its new value. The name may be written with or without a directly following colon :.

In the case of multiple parameter definitions with the same name, only the last one is valid.

The succeding sections describe the configuration statements by a formal syntax using the following elements:

keywords have special meanings.

variable_input depends on the configuration.

alternative_1|alternative_2: Alternatives are separated by a vertical bar.

[optional]: Optional parameters are surrounded by brackets.

parameter...: Repetition (one or more times) is denoted by the ellipsis.

{element}: Braces are used for grouping.

Default configuration

If the xposextool program is called without any arguments, the default configuration is effective. The following lines show almost all configuration statements with their default values

recordSettings
    fromDisplay $DISPLAY
        connectTimeout "20 sec"
        offlineTimeout "0 ms"
        continueWhenOffline off
        transmission uncompressed
        multimedia record ""
        types input output 
        clients all
        pointerMotionResolution 15
        timestampResolution 100
        showSnapshotPointerImage on
    toFile ~/%Y-%m-%d_%H:%M:%S.pose
    newFiles never
    overwriteProtection on
    keepNumberOfFiles 0
    insertSnapshot earliestAfter "60 min"
    encoding uncompressed
    title ""
    subTitle ""
    description ""
    keywords ""
    author ""
    copyright ""
    terminate never

playSettings
    fromFile ""
    sortFiles off
    recordedDisplays all
        toDisplay $DISPLAY
            connectTimeout "20 sec"
            offlineTimeout "0 ms"
            displayMode fullscreen
            startHidden off
            onTop on
            suppressScreenSaver off
            title ""
            serverFonts off
            pointerZoom 1
            osd off osdX -800 osdY 0
            clipX 0 clipY 0 clipWidth 0 clipHeight 0
            displayX 0 displayY 0 displayWidth 0 displayHeight 0
            types output pointerMovements
    startTime begin +00:00:00
    stopTime end -00:00:00
    ignoreEOF on
    playMode wait
    speed 1.0 synchronous
    screenshotTo ~/%Y-%m-%d_%H:%M:%S.ppm
    hotKey suspend Control Space
    hotKey previousSnapshot Control Left
    hotKey nextSnapshot Control Right
    hotKey doubleSpeed Control KP_Add
    hotKey maxSpeed Control KP_Multiply
    hotKey halfSpeed Control KP_Subtract
    hotKey hundredthSpeed none
    hotKey thousandthSpeed none
    hotKey previousScreen Control Up
    hotKey nextScreen Control Down
    hotKey screenshot Control S

copySettings
    fromDisplay $DISPLAY
        connectTimeout "20 sec"
        offlineTimeout "0 ms"
        continueWhenOffline off
        transmission uncompressed
        multimedia
            record ""
            feedback ""
        types input output
        clients all
        pointerMotionResolution 15
        toDisplay $DISPLAY
            connectTimeout "20 sec"
            offlineTimeout "0 ms"
            displayMode fullscreen
            startHidden off
            onTop on
            title ""
            serverFonts off
            pointerZoom 1
            osd off osdX -800 osdY 0
            clipX 0 clipY 0 clipWidth 0 clipHeight 0
            displayX 0 displayY 0 displayWidth 0 displayHeight 0
            types output pointerMovements
            inputSwitch off
            selectionSync off
    screenshotTo ~/%Y-%m-%d_%H:%M:%S.ppm
    hotKey suspend Control Space
    hotKey previousScreen Control Up
    hotKey nextScreen Control Down
    hotKey screenshot Control S

convertSettings
    fromFile ""
    sortFiles off
    recordedDisplay :0.0
        toDisplay $DISPLAY
            connectTimeout "20 sec"
            offlineTimeout "0 ms"
            displayMode fullscreen
            suppressScreenSaver on
            serverFonts off
            pointerZoom 1
            clipX 0 clipY 0 clipWidth 0 clipHeight 0
            displayWidth 0 displayHeight 0
            types output pointerMovements
    startTime begin +00:00:00
    stopTime end -00:00:00
    toFile ~/converted.mpeg1
    encoder FFMPEG
    format "MPEG-1 Video"
    frameRate 24
    imageQuality 60
    ringBellWhenFinished on

globalSettings
    hotKey gui Shift Control
    numberOfThreads 4
    logDestination /var/opt/XSOXmetaX/logs/xposextool-user_name.html 
    logTypes errors statistics

Comments

Comments start with a number symbol # and extend to the end of the line.

If a comment — after elimination of white space characters — starts at the beginning of a line, it is associated with the last preceding top level statement. When writing a configuration file, the configuration tool places these comment lines just between the corresponding top level statement and the following sub-statements.

The introducing comment lines preceding the first top level statement are preserved.

All other comments are ignored and not saved by the configuration tool.

Variables

The environment variables are accessed like in a shell, for example:

playSettings recordedDisplay $DISPLAY

Variable assignments, however, follow a different syntax:

set variable_name value

like in:

set POSEFILE $HOME/1.pose

A variable name begins with a letter (including the underscore _) followed by letters or digits. Braces are used to separate the variable name in special situations:

set server1 remote:1.
playSettings recordedDisplay ${server1}0

Each variable set in the configuration is copied into the environment where it may be accessed by, for instance, programs connected by the Multimedia mechanism (Multimedia) (Multimedia) (Converted file).

Lists

Some statements take as argument a list of individual items in the form of:

{[+|-]item}...

The optional sign determines whether an item is included or not: if an item specifier starts with a minus character -, then the corresponding item is deleted from the configured set of items, otherwise it is included into the set. The initial set depends on the first specifier: if it starts with a minus character -, the initial set contains all possible items, otherwise the initial set is empty.

Arithmetic expressions

Arithmetic expressions may contain the operators *, /, and % (modulus), + and - as well as variable references. They are surrounded by parentheses, for instance:

set width 1280
set doubleWidth ($width * 2)

Points of time and periods of time

The specification of a point of time follows an enhanced ISO syntax:

[year{-|/}month{-|/}day] hours:minutes[:seconds[.milliseconds]] [am|AM|pm|PM] [Z|{+|-hours:minutes}]

The following examples denote nearly the same time on August 20, 2008 in Central Europe:

2008-08-20 20:08:20.2008
20:08
18:08 Z
08:08 pm

The syntax for the specification of a period of time is similar:

[[hours:]minutes:]seconds[.milliseconds]

The following examples denote approximately the same period:

1:23:45.678
83:45
5025

File sizes

File sizes are specified using the known units (Bytes by default):

number[{Bytes|Byte|B}|{KiB|KB|K}|{MiB|MB|M}|{GiB|GB|G}|{TiB|TB|T}]

In all cases the factors conform to the binary system, the following examples denote the same size:

1024
1024B
"1024 bytes"
1KiB
1KB
1K

Configuration file

The statement

source file_name|-

or, even shorter

file_name|-

is substituted by the contents of a configuration file. The file name - stands for the standard input stream. The file inclusions may be nested arbitrarily, but not cyclically.

The statement

stop

terminates the interpretation of a configuration file before reaching the end of the input. The remaining contents are neither read in nor saved by the configuration tool.

Multimedia profiles

How the xposextool program has to control multimedia devices — like microphones, cameras, loudspeakers, serial lines — or external converters, is determined by multimedia profiles in the multimedia profiles file xmultimedia_profiles. Usually this file is stored in the installation directory /etc/opt/XSOXmetaX (Installation directories).

The profiles define key names for devices, programs, and parameters, which are referred by the following configuration statements or in the dialog box (XposeXtool: control and configuration with graphical user interface). More informations can be found in the multimedia profiles file.

Hereafter multimedia_specification denotes a list of key names from the multimedia profiles file or parameter assignments surrounded by double quotes ", like:

"Microphone"
"Microphone CD-quality"
"Microphone CD-quality X_Audio_Input_Volume=100%"

"FFMPEG"
"MPEG-1 Video"

Pattern elements

Some parameters may contain pattern elements which are substituted by current values at runtime.

The pattern elements are known from date(1) or strftime(3C) with the exception of the second (many substitutions depend on the selected locale):