Appendix-B

The MiNT Configuration File

If MiNT finds a file called mint.cnf, it will read some configuration information from it. MiNT searches for this file first in the current directory (the root directory, if MiNT was started from the auto folder), then in a \mint directory, and then in \multitos. The configuration file is an ordinary ASCII text file; it can be edited with any editor that will produce plain ASCII files.

If you're using a word processor, make sure you save the file as plain ASCII text. Also note that TAB character is NOT NOT NOT allowed to occur. All TABs must be converted to spaces before the edited mint.cnf file is saved to the disk.

Variables

Commands of the form name=value set system parameters of some kind. Here they are, in roughly increasing order of obscurity:

INIT=file

GEM=file

This specifies the command you want MiNT to run at boot up time. File should be a full path name. The default is for the MultiTOS MiNT kernel is \multitos\gem.sys. Both INIT= and GEM= specify an initial program to run, but the way the program is launched is different depending on whether you say GEM= or INIT=. With the GEM= form, the application is launched via the exec_os vector (see the Hitchiker's Guide to the BIOS). With the INIT= form, the application is launched directly via Pexec(). Only one GEM= or INIT= line is permitted in the configuration file.

MAXMEM=n

Specifies the maximum amount of memory that may be used by any one process. n is measured in kilobytes.

CON=file

This specifies the file or device you want MiNT to use by default for all console output, including debugging output. It should be a full path name, and is usually a device in u:\dev. The obvious choice is u:\dev\console (the default).

PRN=file

Specifies a file that should be used for all printer output. Initially, all Bconout() calls to device 0 will refer to this device. Again, a full path name, usually in u:\dev, is expected. The default is u:\dev\centr, which is the device corresponding to the centronics port.

BIOSBUF=no or yes

If BIOSBUF=yes appears in your configuration file, then certain optimizations in MiNT concerning BIOS input and output are used. These optimizations should normally be transparent to user programs, but can be turned off with BIOSBUF=no. The default is yes (optimizations on).

SLICES=n

Controls the number of 20ms time slices to give to processes before they will be preempted. The default (2) is usually the best value; a higher value (e.g. 3) will cause CPU intensive tasks to receive more time, while a lower one (e.g. 1) will favor interactive tasks slightly.

Commands

The following commands can also be in the mint.cnf file. Spaces separate commands from arguments:

Comment

A line beginning with a number sign (#) is a comment. The entire line is ignored. Blank lines are also allowed (and ignored).

alias drive path

Creates a new drive which is actually an alias for a path. For example, old versions of MiNT used drive x: instead of the directory u:\proc. If you have an old program which requires drive x:, you could put:

alias x: u:\proc

in your mint.cnf file.

cd dir

Change the current drive and directory. This isn't terribly useful, unless your initial program (see above) expects to run in some particular directory.

echo string

Displays string on the screen.

exec program args ...

Execute a program, with some arguments. The full path name and extension (.prg, .tos, .ttp, or whatever) of the program to execute must be given. Initialization of MiNT does not continue until this program terminates.

ren oldname newname

Rename a file or directory.

setenv var value

Set the environment variable var' tovalue'. NOTE: If any setenv commands are given in mint.cnf, an entirely new environment is constructed; otherwise, the INIT program MiNT runs will inherit the environment that MiNT got.

sln oldfile newlink

Create a symbolic link called newlink' for the file (or directory) oldfile`. At this time, only drive u: supports symbolic links, so the second name must be on drive u:; the first name can be anything. A symbolic link is just an alias or nickname for a file. For example, if your mint.cnf file contains this line:

sln d:\foo\bar u:\baz

then references to u:\baz would automatically be translated by the kernel so that they really referred to d:\foo\bar. If d:\foo\bar is actually a subdirectory, with the file frob.txt in it, then that file can be accessed either through the name d:\foo\bar\frob.txt or u:\baz\frob.txt.