servedat Configuration File

If you simply install servedat by running the "Install servedat" script, the default settings will allow clients to access the server using their existing system authentication credentials, and the default options should be adequate for most scenarios.

If you wisth to customize servedat, by adding private authentication users for example, then you will need to create or edit a configuration file.  A sample "servedat.cf" file is included in the "Server Files" folder of the distribution package, along with an "Install servedat.cf" script to copy the sample into the correct location.

The "Adding Users" chapter provides a step-by-step walk-through of editing, installing, and loading the configuration file.  Even if you are just planning to edit other configuration options, reading through that chapter will provide guidance on the best ways to go about it.

Loading Configuration Files

On startup, servedat will attempt to load configuration information from one of three locations: a system-wide file, a home directory file, or a path given with command line option -f.

	Mac / Unix	Windows
System	/etc/servedat.cf	%SystemRoot%\servedat.cf
Home	$HOME/.servedat.cf	%AppData%\DEI\servedat.cf
-f <path>	<path>	<path>

Settings will be honored in the following increasing precedence: built-in defaults, system configuration file, home configuration file, command line configuration file, then command line options.

You can disable all configuration files by using a blank path with -f.  This ensures that only built-in defaults and command line options are used.  For example:
servedat -f ""

Changes to the configuration file will not take effect until the server is restarted.  A simple way to restart the server is to re-run the "Install servedat" script.

Windows: When servedat is running as a Windows Service, you can restart it by using the Services administration utility.  Find the "ServeDat" service (or whatever name you have set as the ServiceName), right click, and select "Restart".

All Others: Sending the HUP signal to a running servedat process will cause it to restart and reload all of its configuration settings.

Note that any active transactions will be immediately terminated when servedat is restarted.

Format

Each line in a configuration file may consist of at most 127 characters of plain text.  Lines beginning with a hash, space, or tab are ignored.  All other lines have one of the following formats:

<variable>=<value> <variable> <value>

The second form ignores any leading white space in <value>.  Variable names are not case sensitive.  See the enclosed servedat.cf file for an example.

Configuration variables, along with their corresponding command line options, are described in the Options section.

A configuration file must contain the following line to work with this version of servedat:

ServedatConfigVersion 1

Do not change or remove that value as it defines the format of the file and servedat may reject or incorrectly parse the file if it has a different number.