Properties are usually set in a configuration file. A configuration file contains a number of name–value pairs, with each pair on a separate line. Empty lines and lines consisting entirely of white space characters are ignored. The
# character introduces a comment that extends to the end of the current line.
# Example config file for IceIce.MessageSizeMax = 2048 # Largest message size is 2MB
Ice.Trace.Network=3 # Highest level of tracing for network
Ice.Trace.Protocol= # Disable protocol tracing
Leading and trailing white space is always ignored for property names (whether the white space is escaped or not), but white space within property
values is preserved.
# White space exampleMy.Prop = a property # Value is "a property"
My.Prop = a property # Value is "a property"
My.Prop = \ \ a property\ \ # Value is " a property "
My.Prop = \ \ a \ \ property\ \ # Value is " a property "
My.Prop = a \\ property # Value is "a \ property"
This example shows that leading and trailing white space for property names is ignored unless escaped with a backslash whereas, white space that is surrounded by non-white space characters is preserved exactly, whether it is escaped or not. As usual, you can insert a literal backslash into a property value by using a double backslash (
\\).
If you set the same property more than once, the last setting prevails and overrides any previous setting. Note that assigning nothing to a property clears that property (that is, sets it to the empty string).
A property that contains the empty string (such as Ice.Trace.Protocol in the preceding example) is indistinguishable from a property that is not mentioned at all. This is because the API to retrieve the property value returns the empty string for non-existent properties (see
page 673).
Ice reads the contents of a configuration file when you create a communicator. By default, the name of the configuration file is determined by reading the contents of the
ICE_CONFIG environment variable. You can set this variable to a relative or absolute pathname of the configuration file, for example:
$ export ICE_CONFIG=/opt/Ice/default_config
$ ./server
Property values can include characters from non-English alphabets. The Ice run time expects the configuration file to use UTF‑8 encoding for such characters. (With C++, you can specify a string converter when you read the file. See
page 675,
Section 28.3, and
Section 28.23.)
The characters = and
# have special meaning in a configuration file:
•
= marks the end of the property name and the beginning of the property value
•
# starts a comment that extends to the end of the line
foo\=bar=1 Name is "foo=bar", value is "1"
foo\#bar = 2 Name is "foo#bar", value is "2"
foo bar =3 Name is "foo bar", value is "3"
In a property value, a # character must be escaped to prevent it from starting a comment, but an
= character does not require an escape. Consider these examples:
A=1 Name is "A", value is "1"
B= 2 3 4 Name is "B", value is "2 3 4"
C=5=\#6 # 7 Name is "C", value is "5=#6"
Note that, to successive backslashes in a property value become a single backslash. To get two consecutive backslashes, you must escape each one with another backslash: