NAME
PolyGlot - Winboard protocol to UCI protocol adapter
- book engine for Polyglot books
- - a collection of utilities for creating opening books
+ - a collection of utilities for creating and analyzing open-
+ ing books
- a utility for analyzing epd files
- a perft counter
SYNOPSIS
- polyglot [configfile]
+ polyglot [configfile] [-noini] [-ec engine] [-ed enginedirectory] [-en
+ enginename] [-log] [-lf logfile] [-hash value] [-bk book] [-pg
+ <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-
polyglot merge-book -in1 inputfile1 -in2 inputfile2 [-out outputfile]
- polyglot [configfile] epd-test [-epd inputfile] [-min-depth depth]
- [-max-depth depth] [-max-time time] [-depth-delta delta]
+ polyglot info-book [-bin inputfile] [-exact]
+
+ polyglot dump-book [-bin inputfile] -color color [-out outputfile]
+
+ polyglot [configfile] epd-test [engineoptions] [-epd inputfile]
+ [-min-depth depth] [-max-depth depth] [-max-time time] [-depth-delta
+ delta]
polyglot perft [-fen fen] [-max-depth depth]
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.
+
+ Options which normally appear in the [PolyGlot] section of the config
+ file (see below) are exported as options with their name prefixed by
+ "Polyglot". This makes it easy to filter them in the GUI.
+
+ NOTE: Not all options are exported, only those that make sense in the
+ given mode.
+
Book making utilities
PolyGlot supports the "PolyGlot opening book format". This is the
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 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
+ may be (and there usually are) many positions in the book that are not
+ on a "line" as defined in the previous paragraph. It is convenient to
+ call such positions "isolated" positions. The utility "info-book"
+ counts such isolated positions.
+
+ Some of the isolated positions are provably unreachable and they could
+ in principle be deleted from the book. For example if a book contains
+ only the move "e4" in the starting position but also the position after
+ "d4 d5" then this last position is provably unreachable since it
+ requires white to make a non-book move when a book move is available.
+ Such situations arise frequently from the priority rules in merging
+ books.
+
+ Unfortunately not all isolated positions are provably unreachable and
+ it is difficult to identify the latter. If invoked with "-exact" the
+ utility info-book will attempt to count the isolated positions which
+ require a player to make a non-book move when a book move is available.
+ Due to the possibility of transpositions this is not a fool proof
+ method.
+
Epd test mode
In epd test mode, PolyGlot will search positions in an epd file and
ever much slower than other more dedicated programs.
OPTIONS
- When invoked without options or with a config file as argument PolyGlot
- acts as an adapter. The config file format is documented below. The
- default config file is "polyglot.ini".
+ When PolyGlot is invoked as an adapter of in epd-test mode it gets its
+ options from a config file and then from the command line. The default
+ config file is "polyglot.ini" but an alternative one may be optionally
+ included as first argument. The config file format is described below.
+
+ The following engine options may be specified on the command line.
+
+ -noini
+ Do not use a config file, even if one was specified on the command
+ line.
+
+ -pg The argument is a string of the form <name>=<value>. This option
+ will set the Polyglot option <name> to <value>.
+
+ -uci
+ 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>".
+
+ -ed This is an alias for -pg "EngineDir=<value>".
+
+ -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".
+
+ -lf (default: "polyglot.log")
+ This is an alias for -pg "LogFile=<value>".
+
+ -bk This is an alias for -pg "Book=true" -pg "BookFile=<value>".
When invoked as
When invoked as
+ polyglot dump-book
+
+ PolyGlot supports the following options
+
+ -bin (default: book.bin)
+ Input file in PolyGlot book format.
+
+ -color
+ The color for whom to generate the lines.
+
+ -out (default: book_<color>.txt)
+ The name of the output file.
+
+ When invoked as
+
+ 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 iso-
+ lated ones. Note that this takes a very long time.
+
+ When invoked as
+
polyglot epd-test
- (possibly with a config file as first argument) PolyGlot supports the
- following options
+ (possibly with a config file as first argument) PolyGlot supports
+ besides the generic options described above the following additional
+ options.
-max-depth (default: 63)
Unconditionally stop the search when this depth has been reached.
Unconditionally stop the seach after this amount of time.
-depth-delta (default: 3)
- Stop the search if the best move has been constant for this many
- depths, on condition that the mininal depth and minimal time have
- been reached.
+ Stop the search if the solution as been found and the best move has
+ been constant for this many depths, on condition that the mininal
+ depth and minimal time have been reached.
-min-depth (default: 8)
Minimal search depth when the search is stopped using
option = value
...
- Lines starting with "#" are ignored.
+ The characters "#" and ";" serve as comment characters.
- NOTE: There can be spaces in option names or values. Do not use
- quotes. Boolean values are written as "true" or "false".
+ 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
Show search information during engine pondering. Turning this off
might be better for interactive use in some interfaces.
+ ScoreWhite (default: true)
+ Report score from white's point of view in xboard mode.
+
KibitzMove (default: false)
Whether to kibitz when playing a move.
effect only if "KibitzPV" is selected, move kibitzes are always
sent regardless of the delay.
+ KibitzInterval (default: 0)
+ This is another form of throttling. PolyGlot will usually wait this
+ many seconds before doing the next kibitz.
+
UCI (default: false)
If true PolyGlot will not understand xboard commands.
+ MateScore (default: 10000)
+ Mate score reported to GUI when in xboard mode.
+
Book (default: false)
Indicates whether a PolyGlot book should be used. This has no
effect on the engine own book (which can be controlled with the UCI
book. Remember that PolyGlot is unaware of whether the engine is
itself using a book or not.
- Chess960 (default: false)
- Play Chess960 (also called Fischer Random Chess or FRC),
-
- MateScore (default: 10000)
- Mate score reported to GUI when in xboard mode.
-
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.
- NOTE: When using PolyGlot with a UCI GUI this parameter can be set
- via the UCI option "Polyglot BookFile".
+ BookRandom (default: true)
+ Select moves according to their weights in the book. If false the
+ move with the highest weight is selected.
BookRandom (default: true)
Select moves according to their weights in the book. If false the
move with the highest weight is selected.
- BookLearn (default: false)
- Record learning information in the opening book. Naturally this
- requires the opening book to be writable.
+ BookDepth (default: 256)
+ Stop using the book after this number of moves.
+
+ BookTreshold (default: 5)
+ Do not play moves with a weight (probability) lower than this (in
+ per mil).
UseNice (default: false)
Run the engine at nice level 5, or "NiceValue" if it set. On some
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.
+ SaveSettingsOnExit (default: true)
+ If true then PolyGlot will implement persistence by loading its
+ options from an additional INI file which is specified by the
+ option "SaveFile". At exit PolyGlot will also save its options to
+ this INI file.
+
+ SaveFile (default: <EngineName>.ini)
+ The name of the file from which to take the additional options.
+
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). The default value is always cor-
- rect for bug-free software.
+ 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
RepeatPV (default: true)
When true, PolyGlot repeats the last pv string (which also contains
score,depth and time usage) it got from the engine. Some engines
- however do not send a new pv string just before sending the move
- and the now old pv string might confuse debugtools that parse the
- winboard debug files.
+ however do not send a new pv string just before sending the move.
+ In that case the output of PolyGlot would be inconsistent. When
+ RepeatPV is false PolyGlot does not repeat the last pv string. Due
+ 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
polyglot make-book -pgn games.pgn -bin book.bin -max-ply 30
- Merge books "in1.bin" and "in2.bin" into a book "out.bin".
+ Merge books "w1.bin" and "w2.bin" into a book "w.bin".
polyglot merge-book -in1 w1.bin -in2 w2.bin -out w.bin
- Here is a minimal config file
+ Inspect lines for white in "w.bin"
+
+ polyglot dump-book -bin w.bin -color white -out w_white.txt
+
+ Test epd file "test.epd" with a (maximum) search time of 7 minutes per
+ position
+
+ 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.
- 2009-01-10 POLYGLOT(6)
+ 2009-08-31 POLYGLOT(6)
projects / polyglot.git / blobdiff