From: Mark Wooding <mdw@distorted.org.uk>
Date: Sun, 3 Mar 2024 16:28:12 +0000 (+0000)
Subject: README.org: Give a brief description of the configuration file.
X-Git-Url: https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/ucgi/~mdw/git/runlisp/commitdiff_plain/bc040e8027e121781f7f6a8ac1da2c3156a861bf

README.org: Give a brief description of the configuration file.

And an example of configuring `prefer', because that's the obvious
simple thing that someone will want to do.
---

diff --git a/README.org b/README.org
index b59221a..fe14cd7 100644
--- a/README.org
+++ b/README.org
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 #+AUTHOR: Mark Wooding
 #+LaTeX_CLASS: strayman
 #+LaTeX_HEADER: \usepackage{tikz, gnuplot-lua-tikz}
+#+LaTeX_HEADER: \DeclareUnicodeCharacter{200B}{}
 #+EXPORT_FILE_NAME: doc/README.pdf
 
 ~runlisp~ is a small C program intended to be run from a script ~#!~
@@ -233,8 +234,19 @@ The ~runlisp~ program looks for configuration in a number of places.
     directories to add support for privately installed Lisp systems, or
     to override settings made by earlier configuration files.
 
-The configuration syntax is complicated, and explained in detail in the
-*runlisp.conf* manpage.
+But configuration files generally look like =.ini=-style files.  A line
+beginning with a semicolon ~;~ is a comment and is ignored.  Most lines
+are assignments, which look like
+#+BEGIN_QUOTE
+/name/ ~=~ /value/
+#+END_QUOTE
+and assignments are split into sections by section headers in square
+brackets:
+#+BEGIN_QUOTE
+~[~​/section/​~]~
+#+END_QUOTE
+The details of the configuration syntax are complicated, and explained
+in the *runlisp.conf* manpage.
 
 Configuration options can also be set on the command line, though the
 effects are subtly different.  Again, see the manual pages for details.
@@ -249,7 +261,12 @@ The ~prefer~ option specifies a /preference list/ of Lisp
 implementations.  The value is a list of Lisp implementation names, as
 you'd give to ~-L~, separated by commas and/or spaces.  If the
 environment variable ~RUNLISP_PREFER~ is set, then this overrides any
-value found in the configuration files.
+value found in the configuration files.  So your ~$HOME/.runlisp.conf~
+file might look like this:
+
+: ;;; -*-conf-*-
+:
+: prefer = sbcl, clisp
 
 When deciding which Lisp implementation to use, ~runlisp~ works as
 follows.  It builds a list of /acceptable/ Lisp implementations from the
diff --git a/doc/README.pdf b/doc/README.pdf
index c4dbc61..cc173fa 100644
Binary files a/doc/README.pdf and b/doc/README.pdf differ