special variables

Many options in TF can be controlled by setting special global variables. Many variables have a limited number of permitted values, with corresponding integer values; these are called enumerated variables. All flags are enumerated variables which can have the values "off" (0) or "on" (1). Numeric variables can have any integer value (within the range allowed by your system). Attempting to unset numeric variable or give it a string value will force its value to 0. Dtime variables represent a time duration or period; their values can be written as a number of seconds or in hours:minutes[:seconds] format, with up to 6 decimal places (microseconds). A variable's type (enumerated, numeric, dtime, or string) affects its behavior in expressions.

Special substitute-only variables

The following special variables may be used only in substitutions, never as a variable reference in an expression.

#: The number of words in a macro's argument text.
?: The string return value of the most recently executed command (builtin or macro). (Macros) called as functions return their value and do not set %?.)
1,2...
L1,L2...
*
R: Positional parameters. See "substitution". (As of 5.0 beta 7, these are case sensitive.)
Pn PL PR: The text matched by the nth parenthesized subexpression, or the text to the left or right of the matched text, in the last successful regexp comparison. See %Pn for more details. (As of 5.0 beta 7, these are case sensitive.)

Special global variables

The following special global variables can be examined and set. In the following list, a '=' following a variable name indicates its default value. For variables that do not have defaults listed, the default is dependent on your system or configuration.

COLUMNS

If this variable is set in the environment when TF starts, TF will use its value instead of the value from the terminal driver. See %LINES, columns().

HOME

Your home directory, used by /cd and filename expansion. This is usually inherited from the environment when TF starts.

LANG

The current locale. See locale. Automatically exported to the environment when set.

LC_ALL

The current locale. See locale. Automatically exported to the environment when set.

LC_CTYPE

The current locale for character classification. See locale. Automatically exported to the environment when set.

LC_TIME

The current locale for time formatting. See locale. Automatically exported to the environment when set.

LINES

If this variable is set in the environment when TF starts, TF will use its value instead of the value from the terminal driver. See %COLUMNS, lines().

MAIL

The name of a file which TF may check for mail. See: mail.

SHELL

Shell used by /sh and /quote !. This is usually inherited from the environment when TF starts.

TERM

Terminal type. Changing the value of %TERM at any time will cause TF to re-initialize its display functions to use the new value. The value of %TERM should agree with your actual terminal or emulator. If your emulator supports multiple terminal types, the recommended type to use is vt220, vt100, or ansi (in that order). %TERM is usually inherited from the environment when TF starts. See also: mode.

TFHELP=%{TFLIBDIR}/tf-help

The name of the file used by /help.

TFLIBDIR

The name of the TF library directory, which should contain the help file (tf-help), the standard library (stdlib.tf), the local library (local.tf), and many useful utility files. The default value of TFLIBDIR is set when TF is installed, but can be overridden by setting it in the environment before starting TF. This directory will be searched by /load if TFPATH is blank or not set. See also: /load.

TFLIBRARY=%{TFLIBDIR}/stdlib.tf

The name of the library file loaded at startup. This can be set in the environment before starting TF, to load from an alternate library file.

TFMAILPATH

A space-separated list of files which TF may check for mail. Literal spaces in a filename must be preceded by "\". See: mail.

TFPATH=

A space-separated list of directories that will be searched by /load. Literal spaces in a directory name must be preceded by "\". If this is set, %{TFLIBDIR} will be ignored by /load, so be sure to include the value of %{TFLIBDIR} in %{TFPATH} if you want to be able to /load files with relative names from the standard library directory. See also: /load.

TZ

On most systems, the timezone used to display formatted times. In the United States, the value is usually the local timezone name, followed by the difference in hours from GMT, followed by an optional daylight saving timezone name; for example, "PST8PDT". For details, see your system documentation for tzset(3) or environ(5). This is usually inherited from the environment when TF starts, and is automatically exported to the environment when set.

alert_attr=Br

The attributes used to display alert text on the status line.

alert_time=5.0

(dtime) The number of seconds that alert text is displayed on the status line. See tfio.

background=on

(flag) If on, text from background worlds is processed and recorded immediately upon receipt. Otherwise, the text is ignored until the socket is brought into the foreground. In either case, the text is not displayed until the socket is brought into the foreground (but see %{bg_output}).

backslash=on

(flag) Enables use of '\' to quote the following character literally during macro expansion. Generally, this should only be turned off if you are having problems with '\' in macros written before version 3.0.

bamf=off

(enumerated)

off: (0): server "portals" are ignored.
on: (1): Unter-style bamfing is enabled (disconnect).
old: (2): Old-style bamfing is enabled (no disconnect).

See /bamf.

bg_output=on

(flag) When a world is brought into the foreground, %bg_output determines how to display output that was produced while the world was in the background: If on, the window display resumes where it left off; if off, the window display jumps to the end, showing only the last screenful. Turning %bg_output off is equivalent to always using the -q option with /fg. The %bg_output flag has no effect on other processing, including triggers and history. This flag is ignored if the %{background} flag is off. %{background} is tested when the world is foregrounded (in versions before 5.0, it was tested when the text was received). (See also: /fg -q)

binary_eol=LF

Determines what to send as end-of-line marker in TELNET BINARY mode. Valid values are "LF", "CR", and "CRLF". (See: /telnet)

borg=on

(flag) Enables trigger bodies (attributes are unaffected). (See: triggers, %max_trig)

clearfull=off

(flag) In visual mode, clear input window rather than scroll when full. Always on if terminal can not scroll.

cleardone=off

(flag) In visual mode, enables clearing of input window when return is pressed.

clock

This variable is no longer supported. To disable the status bar clock, use "/clock off". To make the clock display in 12-hour format, do "

/clock
      %I:%M

". See /clock.

clock_format=%H:%M

The format of the clock displayed on the status line. To make the clock display in 12-hour format, "

/set
      clock_format=%I:%M

". See also: /clock, %time_format.

connect=nonblocking

Set to "blocking" or "nonblocking" to determine how /connect works. Default is "nonblocking" on platforms that support it. Nonblocking allows you to continue doing other things while TF tries to establish a new connection. See also %gethostbyname.

defcompile=off

(flag) If off, macro bodies are compiled the first time they are executed; if on, macro bodies are compiled immediately when they are defined. Since syntax checking is performed during compilation, setting defcompile=on will allow you to see the syntax errors in a macro when you define it instead of waiting until execution.

e=2.718281828...

Euler's number.

expand_tabs=on

(flag) If on (and %emulation is "print", "ansi_strip", or "ansi_attr"), tabs received from a server are expanded to spaces (according to %tabsize) immediately, before any trigger processing. If off, tab characters are left in received lines.

emulation=ansi_attr

Determines how special codes sent by the server should be interpreted by TF. The set of printable characters is determined by the current locale. Valid values for %emulation are:

raw:: No conversion is done; lines are not wrapped; all nonprintable characters are displayed, and their effect is undefined (depending mainly on your terminal). TF's input display is not guaranteed correct; use at your own risk. This mode allows the server to have most of the control over the screen, but is not guaranteed to give the desired effect, and will interfere with trigger matching. For best results, %visual should be "off", and TF attributes should not be used. "Raw" is not recommended unless you know what you're doing.
print:: Tabs are expanded (if %expand_tabs is on); backspaces are interpreted; lines are wrapped; nonprintable characters removed.
ansi_strip:: Like "print", but ANSI display codes are also removed.
ansi_attr:: Like "ansi_strip", but ANSI display attribute codes will be converted to TF's internal format and displayed correctly (on any terminal). Other ANSI display codes (e.g., cursor motion) will be removed. Recommended, especially for servers that send vt100/ansi display attribute codes.
debug:: converts nonprinting characters to a printable form. See also: %telopt.

See also: %istrip, %meta_esc, %tabsize, %expand_tabs, locale, attributes, debugging.

end_color

The code that should be sent to your terminal to return to normal color after a %{start_color_*} code. See: color.

error_attr

Defines the attributes used by the "E" attribute. Can be any combination of attributes, including color names. See: attributes.

gag=on

(flag) Enable the gag attribute. (See: /gag, /nogag)

gethostbyname=nonblocking

Set to "blocking" or "nonblocking" to determine how /connect does hostname resolution. See also %connect.

gpri=0

Priority of subsequent /gags. (See: /gag)

hook=on

(flag) Enable hooks. (See: hooks, /hook, %max_hook.) Note that autologin and automatic %{lp} setting will not work if %{hook} is 0.

hilite=on

(flag) Enable display attributes, whether from a trigger, the server, or whatever. (See: /hilite, /nohilite)

hiliteattr=B

Defines the attributes used by hilites. Can be any combination of attributes, including color names. (See: attributes, /hilite)

histsize=1000

When a new world history is created, it will have space for %{histsize} lines. A world history is created the first time text is sent to it. (See also: /histsize)

hpri=0

Priority of subsequent /hilites.

insert=on

(flag) If on, keyboard input is inserted; if off, input overstrikes existing text.

interactive

(flag) If off, TF will not prompt for /quit, returning from /sh, SIGINT (^C), or SIGQUIT (^\). Defaults to on if standard input and output are attatched to a terminal, off otherwise.

isize=3

Size of input window in visual mode. The output window will be redrawn when this is changed. See also: lines(), winlines().

istrip=off

(flag) If on, the meta (high) bit will be stripped from all input characters. Note that this will prevent %meta_esc and locales with 8-bit characters from working correctly.

kbnum=

A value that can be set by typing ESC followed by digits, to be used as an argument (repeat count) for a subsequent keybinding. See: keybindings.

kecho=off

(flag) Enables echoing of keyboard input, preceded by %{kprefix}. See also: %{kecho_attr}. %{secho}. /localecho, /addworld -e.

kecho_attr

Attributes used for lines echoed by %{kecho}.

keepalive=on

(flag) Enable periodic "pings" (TCP keepalive) of servers, to prevent network timeouts and detect dropped connections. Note: the timing of keepalive messages is a system parameter that can not be changed from tf.

keypad=on

(flag) Enable application keypad mode, if supported by the terminal. Application keypad mode makes the numeric keypad generate characters different than the usual digit characters, so they may be distinguished from the digit keys across the top of the keyboard. See: keybindings.

kprefix=

Prefix prepended to lines echoed by %{kecho}.

login=on

(flag) Enable automatic login hook. (See: automatic login, hooks, /world)

lp=off

(flag) Displays partial lines as prompts, after a short timeout. Useful for LP and Diku MUDs. (See: prompts)

lpquote=off

(flag) If on, all /quote and /repeat processes run when an LP prompt is received instead of when a timer expires. The -P option of /quote and /repeat provides the same feature on a per-process basis. (See: processes)

maildelay=0:01:00.0 (60 seconds)

(dtime) Delay between mail checks. Setting this to 0 disables mail checking. The file to be checked is named by the %{MAIL} variable.

matching=glob

(enumerated) Determines the default pattern matching style.

"simple":: straightforward string comparison.
"glob":: shell-like matching (as before version 3.2).
"regexp":: regular expression.