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. A variable's type (enumerated, numeric, 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).
1,2...
L1,L2...
*
R: Positional parameters. See "substitution".
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.

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. See: mail.

TFPATH=

A space-separated list of directories that will be searched by /load. 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.

auto_fg=on

(flag) If on when the foreground socket disconnects, tf will automatically bring another socket into the foreground.

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

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) If on, output from a background world will be displayed when that world is brought into the foreground. If off, background output will not be displayed, but it will go through all other normal processing, including triggers and history (so it can be accessed with /recall). This flag is ignored if the %{background} flag is off. (The -q option of /fg is a more flexible way to do the same thing.)

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)

clearfull=off

(flag) In visual mode, clear input window rather than scroll when full. Always 1 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 clock, remove the "@clock" field from the %status_fields variable, or /set status_int_clock=''. To make the clock display in 24-hour format,

/set
      status_int_clock=ftime("%H:%M",
      time())

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.

e=2.718281828

Euler's number.

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 processing done; lines 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. For best results, %visual should be "off", and tf attributes should not be used.
print:: Tabs expanded; backspaces interpreted; lines wrapped; nonprintable characters removed.
ansi_strip:: Like "print", but ansi-like display codes (i.e., a sequence consisting of ESC, '[', 0 or more digits and ';'s, and a letter) are also removed.
ansi_attr:: Like "ansi_strip", but ansi-like display attribute codes (i.e., ansi codes ending with 'm') will be converted to tf's internal format and displayed correctly (on any terminal). Other ansi-like codes (e.g., cursor motion) will be removed. Recommended 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, locale, attributes

end_color

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

gag=on

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

gethostbyname

Set to "blocking" or "nonblocking" to determine how /connect does hostname resolution. On OS/2, default is "nonblocking". On UNIX, default is "blocking", because nonblocking is usually slower unless you have a fast machine and slow name service. See also %connect.

gpri=0

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

hook=on

(flag) Enable hooks. (See: hooks, /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.

isize=3

Size of input window in visual mode. See also: lines().

istrip=off

(flag) If on, the 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.

kecho=off

(flag) Re-echoing of keyboard input, preceded by %{kprefix}. See also: /localecho.

kprefix=

Prefix for echoed keyboard text, if %{kecho} is on.

<-- "login" is a separate topic -->

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, waits for LP prompt for /quote and /repeat, instead of operating on a timed basis. (See: processes, /quote, /repeat)

maildelay=60

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

matching=glob

Determines the default pattern matching style.

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