getconfig(5)							File Formats Manual						      getconfig(5)

NAME

       getconfig - meta configuration files for getconfig(1)

SYNOPSIS

       *.cfg

DESCRIPTION

       getconfig is a programmatic interface that is used by the XFree86 server to get configuration information about video hardware when operat-
       ing without an XF86Config file.

       This implementation of getconfig is written in perl.  It processes rules from meta-configuration files.	All meta-configuration files  have
       a .cfg suffix.

       Lines  starting with a pound-sign (#) are comments, and are ignored.  Blank lines that consist only of white space are also treated as com-
       ments and ignored.

       The first non-comment line must be a signature string followed by the file format version number.  The signature string is

	   "XFree86 Project getconfig rules file.  Version: "

       The currently defined version is "1.0".	Files that do not have the correct signature string are ignored.

       The remaining non-comment lines define rules.  The start of a new rule is indicated by a line with  no  leading	white  space.	Subsequent
       lines  making  up a rule must be indented with white space.  Logical lines within a rule may be split over multiple physical lines by using
       the usual continuation convention ('' at the end of the line).	The first logical line of each rule is a perl expression.  It may  be  any
       valid  perl  expression whose evaluated (with 'eval') result may be used as the argument to a perl 'if' statement.  The second logical line
       should be the name of the XFree86 video driver to use when the rule is true, and subsequent logical lines of each  rule,  if  present,  are
       additional  configuration  output  for the video device's XF86Config Device section.  The driver name and additional lines of configuration
       information are written to standard output when the rule is chosen as the successful rule.

       Pseudo rules consisting of perl expressions may be present in the file for the purpose of defining custom perl  variables  or  setting  the
       weight  to  use	for the following rules.  Pseudo rules are rules that consist of a single logical line only, and they are never candidates
       themselves for the successful rule.

       Several perl variables are pre-defined, and may be used within rules.  They include:

	   $vendor		   PCI vendor ID
	   $device		   PCI device ID
	   $revision		   PCI revision ID
	   $subsys		   PCI subsystem ID
	   $subsysVendor	   PCI subsystem vendor ID
	   $class		   PCI class
	   $sbuspath		   SBUS path
	   $XFree86Version	   XFree86 version, as a 'v' string
	   $XFree86VersionNumeric  XFree86 numeric version
	   $XFree86VersionMajor    XFree86 major version
	   $XFree86VersionMinor    XFree86 minor version
	   $XFree86VersionPatch    XFree86 patch version
	   $XFree86VersionSnap	   XFree86 snap version
	   $weight		   current rule weight

       The $weight variable determines the weight of the rules as they are processed.  The weight for subsequent rules may be set  with  a  pseudo
       rule that sets or changes the value of $weight.	The default weight, and the weight used for built-in rules is 500.  The meta-configuration
       files are processed in an unpredictable order.  The weighting of the rules is used to determine their relative priority

       After processing all of the rules, both built-in and those read from the meta-configuration files, the getconfig  program  chooses  as  the
       successful rule the last and highest weighted rule that evaluates to true.

FILES

       .cfg files located in the search path.  The search path typically specified by the XFree86 server is:

	   /etc/X11
	   /usr/X11R6/etc/X11
	   <modulepath>
	   /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/getconfig

       where <modulepath> is the XFree86 server's module search path.

       /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/getconfig/xfree86.cfg
				     Default rules file that gets installed.  This file doesn't contain any rules by default.

       /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/getconfig/cfg.sample
				     A sample rules file that gives some examples of what types of rules can appear in rules files.

SEE ALSO

       getconfig(1), XFree86(1), XF86Config(5).

AUTHORS

       The  XFree86  automatic configuration support and the getconfig interface was written by David H. Dawes, with the support of X-Oz Technolo-
       gies.

XFree86 							   Version 4.7.0						      getconfig(5)