NAME
PolyGlot - Winboard protocol to UCI protocol adapter
- book engine for Polyglot books
- - a collection of utilities for creating and analyzing
- opening books
+ - a collection of utilities for creating and analyzing open-
+ ing books
- a utility for analyzing epd files
- a perft counter
<name>=<value>]* [-uci <name>=<value>]*
polyglot make-book [-pgn inputfile] [-bin outputfile] [-max-ply ply]
- [-min-game games] [-min-score score] [-only-white] [-only-black]
- [-uniform]
+ [-min-game games] [-min-score score] [-only-white] [-only-black] [-uni-
+ form]
polyglot merge-book -in1 inputfile1 -in2 inputfile2 [-out outputfile]
polyglot perft [-fen fen] [-max-depth depth]
DESCRIPTION
- PolyGlot as adapter and book engine
+ PolyGlot as adapter and book engine
+
PolyGlot is a "UCI adapter". It connects a GUI interface (such as
XBoard, Winboard, Arena or Chessbase) to a UCI chess engine.
By specifying an opening book (in PolyGlot book format) chess engines
can transparently use such books.
- PolyGlot understands the two main GUI protocols: UCI and xboard.
- Normally the protocol will be auto detected but this can be overridden
- in the configuration file.
+ PolyGlot understands the two main GUI protocols: UCI and xboard. Nor-
+ mally the protocol will be auto detected but this can be overridden in
+ the configuration file.
In xboard mode PolyGlot fully translates between the xboard and UCI
protocols. In addition it tries to solve known problems with other
engine and vice versa, except that it will play book moves on behalf of
the engine when the occasion arises.
- The engine options are exported as UCI options in UCI mode and as
- "feature option=" commands in xboard mode. The latter form an extension
- of the xboard protocol as defined by H.G. Muller.
+ The engine options are exported as UCI options in UCI mode and as "fea-
+ ture option=" commands in xboard mode. The latter form an extension of
+ the xboard protocol as defined by H.G. Muller.
Options which normally appear in the [PolyGlot] section of the config
file (see below) are exported as options with their name prefixed by
NOTE: Not all options are exported, only those that make sense in the
given mode.
- Book making utilities
+ Book making utilities
+
PolyGlot supports the "PolyGlot opening book format". This is the
- defacto standard non-proprietary opening book format. It is fully
- documented here
+ defacto standard non-proprietary opening book format. It is fully docu-
+ mented here
http://alpha.uhasselt.be/Research/Algebra/Toga/book_format.html
.abk format are undocumented and proprietary. They can only be used by
their own GUIs.
- PolyGlot can compile a pgn file into a binary PolyGlot book and
- furthermore it can merge two such binary books into a third one.
+ PolyGlot can compile a pgn file into a binary PolyGlot book and fur-
+ thermore it can merge two such binary books into a third one.
PolyGlot can also extract some useful information from PolyGlot books.
The utility "dump-book" dumps the "lines" in a book for a given color.
- By definition a line is a sequence of moves (from the starting
- position) in which the given color makes only book moves and the other
+ By definition a line is a sequence of moves (from the starting posi-
+ tion) in which the given color makes only book moves and the other
color makes arbitrary moves (i.e. not necessarily book moves).
Since a PolyGlot book is built up from positions and not lines there
Due to the possibility of transpositions this is not a fool proof
method.
- Epd test mode
+ Epd test mode
+
In epd test mode, PolyGlot will search positions in an epd file and
- record the number of times the right best move was found. The
- arguments specify when to stop the search in any given position.
+ record the number of times the right best move was found. The argu-
+ ments specify when to stop the search in any given position.
+
+ Perft counts
- Perft counts
A perft count is the number of legal move sequence in a given position
- up to a given depth. PolyGlot can perform such perft counts. It is
- however much slower than other more dedicated programs.
+ up to a given depth. PolyGlot can perform such perft counts. It is how-
+ ever much slower than other more dedicated programs.
OPTIONS
When PolyGlot is invoked as an adapter of in epd-test mode it gets its
The argument is a string of the form <name>=<value>. This option
will set the engine option <name> to <value>.
- -ec This sets the EngineCommand.
+ -ec This is an alias for -pg "EngineCommand=<value>"
- -ed This sets the EngineDir.
+ -ed This is an alias for -pg "EngineDir=<value>"
- -en This sets the EngineName.
+ -en This is an alias for -pg "EngineName=<value>"
- -hash
- This is an alias for -uci "Hash=<value>".
-
- -log
- This is an alias for -pg "Log=true".
+ -log (default: false)
+ This is an alias for -pg "Log=<value>"
-lf (default: "polyglot.log")
This is an alias for -pg "LogFile=<value>".
- -bk This is an alias for -pg "Book=true" -pg "BookFile=<value>".
+ -wb (default: "true")
+ This is an alias for -pg "OnlyWbOptions=<value>".
When invoked as
- polyglot make-book
+ polyglot make-book
+
PolyGlot supports the following options
-pgn (default: "book.pgn")
When invoked as
- polyglot merge-book
+ polyglot merge-book
+
PolyGlot supports the following options
-in1
When invoked as
- polyglot dump-book
+ polyglot dump-book
+
PolyGlot supports the following options
-bin (default: book.bin)
When invoked as
- polyglot info-book
+ polyglot info-book
+
PolyGlot supports the following options
-bin (default: book.bin)
Input file in PolyGlot book format.
-exact
- Attempt to count the provably unreachable positions among the
- isolated ones. Note that this takes a very long time.
+ Attempt to count the provably unreachable positions among the iso-
+ lated ones. Note that this takes a very long time.
When invoked as
- polyglot epd-test
+ polyglot epd-test
+
(possibly with a config file as first argument) PolyGlot supports
besides the generic options described above the following additional
options.
When invoked as
- polyglot perft
+ polyglot perft
+
PolyGlot supports the following options
-fen (default: starting position)
The characters "#" and ";" serve as comment characters.
- By default initial and final white space is stripped from option
- values. If you want to avoid this, or if you want use one of the
- comment characters # or ; in option values (such as for NalimovPath),
- enclose the value in quotes.
+ By default initial and final white space is stripped from option val-
+ ues. If you want to avoid this, or if you want use one of the comment
+ characters # or ; in option values (such as for NalimovPath), enclose
+ the value in quotes.
+
+ [PolyGlot] section
- [PolyGlot] section
This section is used by PolyGlot only. The engine is unaware of these
options. The list of available options is detailed below.
command-line arguments. Path searching is used and the current
directory will be "EngineDir".
+ SettingsDir (default: $HOME/.polyglot on Linux; ".\_PG" on Windows)
+ The directory where ini files are stored for engines that are
+ started with -noini. Such ini files may be created by pushing the
+ "Save" button in the Engine settings dialog in WB/XB 4.4.0 and
+ higher. As a special exception (for WB/XB 4.4.0 compatibility) this
+ directory is also used in case PolyGlot is started with config
+ files named "polyglot_1st.ini" or "polyglot_2nd.ini".
+
Log (default: false)
Whether PolyGlot should log all transactions with the interface and
the engine. This should be necessary only to locate problems.
move are ignored.
ResignScore (default: 600)
- This is the score in centipawns that will trigger resign
- "counting".
+ This is the score in centipawns that will trigger resign "count-
+ ing".
ShowPonder (default: true)
Show search information during engine pondering. Turning this off
move).
KibitzCommand (default: "tellall")
- xboard command to use for kibitzing, normally "tellall" for
- kibitzing or "tellothers" for whispering.
+ xboard command to use for kibitzing, normally "tellall" for kibitz-
+ ing or "tellothers" for whispering.
KibitzDelay (default: 5)
How many seconds to wait before starting kibitzing. This has an
BookFile (default: book.bin)
The name of the (binary) book file. Note that PolyGlot will look
for it in the directory it was launched from, not in the engine
- directory. Of course, full path can be used in which case the
- current directory does not matter.
+ directory. Of course, full path can be used in which case the cur-
+ rent directory does not matter.
BookRandom (default: true)
Select moves according to their weights in the book. If false the
This a bit vector in which each bit represents the processors that
a process is allowed to run on. This option works only on Windows.
- Persist (default: true)
- If true then PolyGlot will implement persistence by loading options
- from an additional INI file whose name is by default derived from
- the engine name. At exit PolyGlot will also save its options to
- this INI file.
-
- PersistFile (default: <EngineName>.ini)
- The name of the file from which to take the additional options. It
- is probably best to stick with the default. You can safely edit
- this file, or delete it to restore the default options.
+ OnlyWbOptions (default: true)
+ If true then PolyGlot restricts the options it sends to those that
+ are potentially useful for WinBoard.
- PersistDir (default: $HOME/.polyglot on Linux; ".\Polyglot Settings" on
- Windows)
- The directory where the PersistFile is stored.
+ Work arounds
- Work arounds
Work arounds are identical to options except that they should be used
only when necessary. Their purpose is to try to hide problems with
various software (not just engines).
- IMPORTANT: Any of these work arounds might be removed in future
- versions of PolyGlot. You are strongly recommended to contact the
- author of faulty software and truly fix the problem.
+ IMPORTANT: Any of these work arounds might be removed in future ver-
+ sions of PolyGlot. You are strongly recommended to contact the author
+ of faulty software and truly fix the problem.
PolyGlot supports the following work arounds:
CanPonder (default: false)
PolyGlot now conforms to the documented UCI behaviour: the engine
will be allowed to ponder only if it (the engine) declares the
- "Ponder" UCI option. However some engines which can actually
- ponder do not declare the option. This work around lets PolyGlot
- know that they can ponder.
+ "Ponder" UCI option. However some engines which can actually pon-
+ der do not declare the option. This work around lets PolyGlot know
+ that they can ponder.
SyncStop (default: false)
- When a ponder miss occurs, Polyglot interrupts the engine and
- IMMEDIATELY launches a new search. While there should be no
- problem with this, some engines seem confused and corrupt their
- search board. "SyncStop" forces PolyGlot to wait for the (now
- useless) ponder search to finish before launching the new search.
+ When a ponder miss occurs, Polyglot interrupts the engine and IMME-
+ DIATELY launches a new search. While there should be no problem
+ with this, some engines seem confused and corrupt their search
+ board. "SyncStop" forces PolyGlot to wait for the (now useless)
+ ponder search to finish before launching the new search.
PromoteWorkAround (default: false)
Some engines do not specify a promotion piece, e.g. they send
to the way kibitzing is implemented, KibitzMove is disabled in that
case.
- WbWorkArounds (default: true)
- The intention of these options is to provide work arounds for
- xboard/winboard bugs should they arise. This one decapitalizes the
- word Draw in options that contain this word. Some versions of
- xboard/winboard contain a bug which causes such options to be
- interpreted as draw claims by the engine.
-
- Engines that send options with "Draw" in their name are Rybka and
- HIARCS.
-
- WbWorkArounds2 (default: false)
- Old version of Winboard clear the engine output window at depth 1.
- With this work around PG will send info lines at depth >=2. This
- may or may not improve the display.
+ [Engine] section
- [Engine] section
This section contains engine UCI options. PolyGlot does not understand
them, but sends the information to the engine at startup (converted to
UCI form). You can add any UCI option that makes sense to the engine
(not just the common options about hash-table size and tablebases).
- NOTE: use INI syntax, not UCI. For example "OwnBook = true" is
- correct. It will be replaced by PolyGlot with "setoption name OwnBook
+ NOTE: use INI syntax, not UCI. For example "OwnBook = true" is cor-
+ rect. It will be replaced by PolyGlot with "setoption name OwnBook
value true" at engine startup.
Standard UCI options are
Various enhancements: Fonzy Bleumers<match(at)geenvis.net>
- UCI port, option persistence and new WB protocol: Michel Van den Bergh
+ UCI port and implementation of new WB protocol: Michel Van den Bergh
<michel.vandenbergh(at)uhasselt.be>
SEE ALSO
- 2009-09-05 POLYGLOT(6)
+ 2009-09-11 POLYGLOT(6)
projects / polyglot.git / blobdiff