Appendix C: 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").


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" to "value". 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."