Appendix C: Format of J-Bird.prefs file

Introduction

J-Bird preferences are kept in a file called J-Bird.prefs. The file is a simple text file. You should not need to edit the file, although it is editable, and some values in it can be tweaked. If you choose to edit the file and mess it up, J-Bird will be unable to parse it and terminate with an error such as "Failed to parse preferences file {0}. There is probably an error in the file. You may be able to fix the problem using information at http://j-bird.sourceforge.net/uapdxc.html", where {0} is replaced the name of the J-Bird.prefs file on your computer. If you received such a message, this is the page for you. Or if you would like to tweak the file, this is the page for you.

Location of J-Bird.prefs

The file is usually stored somewhere in your home directory tree. The exact location depends whether you have a Mac, a Windows computer or a Unix/Linux computer. The preferences file is stored with configuration and state files as described in Appendix B. If you have received an error message from J-Bird that indicates that the preferences file could not be read, that message should specify the full path of the file on your computer.

Format of J-Bird.prefs

• J-Bird.prefs contains a number of key and value pairs that are joined by an equals sign
  (e.g., JDBCDriver = com.mckoi.JDBCDriver).
• There is one key-value pair per line, and the key, equals sign and value must all be on the same line.
• Keys and values should be enclosed in double quotes if they contain spaces, equals signs, or hash marks (e.g., JDBCPassword = "bark bark").
• Double quotes cannot be "escaped" to behave as normal characters.
• It is possible to specify line breaks inside of values by specifying \n rather than an actual line break.
• Blank lines are OK.
• Comments are OK. They begin with a hash (#) and continue until the end of the line. Lines that contain only comments are OK.

Keys and values in J-Bird.prefs