NAME
PolyGlot - Winboard protocol to UCI protocol adapter
- book engine for Polyglot books
- - a collection of utilities for creating and analyzing open-
- ing books
+ - a collection of utilities for creating and analyzing
+ opening 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] [-uni-
- form]
+ [-min-game games] [-min-score score] [-only-white] [-only-black]
+ [-uniform]
polyglot merge-book -in1 inputfile1 -in2 inputfile2 [-out outputfile]
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. Nor-
- mally 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.
+ Normally 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 "fea-
- ture 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
+ "feature 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
Book making utilities
PolyGlot supports the "PolyGlot opening book format". This is the
- defacto standard non-proprietary opening book format. It is fully docu-
- mented here
+ defacto standard non-proprietary opening book format. It is fully
+ documented 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 fur-
- thermore it can merge two such binary books into a third one.
+ 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 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 posi-
- tion) in which the given color makes only book moves and the other
+ 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
color makes arbitrary moves (i.e. not necessarily book moves).
Since a PolyGlot book is built up from positions and not lines there
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 argu-
- ments specify when to stop the search in any given position.
+ record the number of times the right best move was found. The
+ arguments specify when to stop the search in any given position.
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 how-
- ever much slower than other more dedicated programs.
+ up to a given depth. PolyGlot can perform such perft counts. It is
+ however 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 is an alias for -pg "EngineCommand=<value>".
+ -ec This sets the EngineCommand.
- -ed This is an alias for -pg "EngineDir=<value>".
+ -ed This sets the EngineDir.
- -en This is an alias for -pg "EngineName=<value>"
+ -en This sets the EngineName.
-hash
This is an alias for -uci "Hash=<value>".
Input file in PolyGlot book format.
-exact
- Attempt to count the provably unreachable positions among the iso-
- lated ones. Note that this takes a very long time.
+ Attempt to count the provably unreachable positions among the
+ isolated ones. Note that this takes a very long time.
When invoked as
The characters "#" and ";" serve as comment characters.
- 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.
+ 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.
[PolyGlot] section
move are ignored.
ResignScore (default: 600)
- This is the score in centipawns that will trigger resign "count-
- ing".
+ This is the score in centipawns that will trigger resign
+ "counting".
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 kibitz-
- ing or "tellothers" for whispering.
+ xboard command to use for kibitzing, normally "tellall" for
+ kibitzing 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 cur-
- rent directory does not matter.
+ directory. Of course, full path can be used in which case the
+ current directory does not matter.
BookRandom (default: true)
Select moves according to their weights in the book. If false the
Persist (default: true)
If true then PolyGlot will implement persistence by loading options
- from an additional INI file which is specified by the option "Per-
- sistFile". At exit PolyGlot will also save its options to this INI
- file.
+ 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: PG_<EngineName>.ini)
- The name of the file from which to take the additional options.
- You can safely edit this file, or delete it to restore the default
- options.
+ 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.
+
+ PersistDir (default: $HOME/.polyglot on Linux; ".\Polyglot Settings" on
+ Windows)
+ The directory where the PersistFile is stored.
Work arounds
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 ver-
- sions 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
+ versions 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 pon-
- der do not declare the option. This work around lets PolyGlot know
- that they can ponder.
+ "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.
SyncStop (default: false)
- 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.
+ 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.
PromoteWorkAround (default: false)
Some engines do not specify a promotion piece, e.g. they send
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 cor-
- rect. It will be replaced by PolyGlot with "setoption name OwnBook
+ NOTE: use INI syntax, not UCI. For example "OwnBook = true" is
+ correct. It will be replaced by PolyGlot with "setoption name OwnBook
value true" at engine startup.
Standard UCI options are
GUI or launch the engine in a console and type "uci".
EXAMPLES
+ Running the UCI engine "fruit" under xboard 4.3.15 and later (this
+ invokes PolyGlot internally).
+
+ xboard -fcp fruit -fUCI
+
+ An explicit command line for using the UCI engine "fruit" with 128M
+ hash in xboard with logging enabled (this also works on xboard 4.2.7).
+
+ xboard -fcp "polyglot -noini -log -ec fruit -hash 128"
+
+ The equivalent config file would be:
+
+ [PolyGlot]
+ EngineCommand = fruit
+ Log = true
+ [Engine]
+ Hash=128
+
Compile "games.pgn" into a book "book.bin" retaining all lines of at
most 30 plies.
polyglot epd-test -epd test.epd -max-time 420
- The command line for using the UCI engine "fruit" with 128M hash in
- xboard with logging enabled.
-
- xboard -fcp "polyglot -noini -log -ec fruit -hash 128"
-
- The equivalent config file would be:
-
- [PolyGlot]
- EngineCommand = fruit
- Log = true
- [Engine]
- Hash=128
-
EXIT STATUS
PolyGlot always returns 0 on exit.
Various enhancements: Fonzy Bleumers<match(at)geenvis.net>
- UCI port: Michel Van den Bergh <michel.vandenbergh(at)uhasselt.be>
+ UCI port, option persistence and new WB protocol: Michel Van den Bergh
+ <michel.vandenbergh(at)uhasselt.be>
SEE ALSO
xboard(6)
- 2009-09-01 POLYGLOT(6)
+ 2009-09-04 POLYGLOT(6)
projects / polyglot.git / blobdiff