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
+ opening books
- a utility for analyzing epd files
- a perft counter
SYNOPSIS
- polyglot [configfile]
-
- polyglot -ec engine
+ polyglot [configfile] [-noini] [-ec engine] [-ed enginedirectory] [-en
+ enginename] [-log true/false] [-lf logfile] [-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-
- form]
+ [-min-game games] [-min-score score] [-only-white] [-only-black]
+ [-uniform]
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]
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. 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
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 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.
-
- Epd test mode
-
+ 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
+ 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
+ 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
- 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
+ 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 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.
- When invoked as
+ The following engine options may be specified on the command line.
- polyglot -ec engine
+ -noini
+ Do not use a config file, even if one was specified on the command
+ line.
- PolyGlot simply starts "engine" and acts as an adapter. No config file
- is used and thus it is expected that all properties will be set by the
- GUI.
+ -pg The argument is a string of the form <name>=<value>. This option
+ will set the Polyglot option <name> to <value>.
- When invoked as
+ -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>"
- polyglot make-book
+ -log (default: false)
+ This is an alias for -pg "Log=<value>"
+ -lf (default: "polyglot.log")
+ This is an alias for -pg "LogFile=<value>".
+
+ -wb (default: "true")
+ This is an alias for -pg "OnlyWbOptions=<value>".
+
+ When invoked as
+
+ 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 epd-test
+ 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
- (possibly with a config file as first argument) 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.
+
+ When invoked as
+
+ polyglot epd-test
+ (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
When invoked as
- polyglot perft
-
+ polyglot perft
PolyGlot supports the following options
-fen (default: starting position)
option = value
...
- Lines starting with "#" are ignored.
-
- NOTE: There can be spaces in option names or values. Do not use
- quotes. Boolean values are written as "true" or "false".
+ The characters "#" and ";" serve as comment characters.
- [PolyGlot] section
+ Initial and final white space is stripped from option names and values.
+ If you need to use characters which have a special meaning to PolyGlot
+ (these are ';#[]=\') you should quote them by preceding them with '\'.
+ "Quoting" other characters in this way has no effect. In particular the
+ use of '\' as a path separator in windows should normally not affected.
+ [PolyGlot] section
This section is used by PolyGlot only. The engine is unaware of these
options. The list of available options is detailed below.
EngineCommand
Put here the name of the engine executable file. You can also add
command-line arguments. Path searching is used and the current
- directory will be "EngineDir".
+ directory will be "EngineDir". On Linux the EngineCommand is passed
+ to wordexp so that shell quoting rules and expansions are applied.
+ On Windows the EngineCommand is simply passed to CreateProcess
+ which does its own shell like processing.
+
+ 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
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
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.
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
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.
- 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.
+ 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
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.
+ This is a noop.
+
+ 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.
- Work arounds
+ STFudge (default: 20)
+ PolyGlot will translate "st x" as "go movetime 1000*x-STFudge".
+ The rationale is that in the UCI specification the argument of
+ movetime is defined as the exact search time whereas the argument
+ of the st command is only an upperbound.
+
+ OnlyWbOptions (default: true)
+ If true then PolyGlot restricts the options it sends to those that
+ are potentially useful for WinBoard.
+ 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
- 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
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.
-
- [Engine] section
+ 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.
+ [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 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 logging
+ enabled (this works also with older versions of xboard).
+
+ xboard -fcp "polyglot -noini -log true -ec fruit"
+
+ The equivalent config file would be:
+
+ [PolyGlot]
+ EngineCommand = fruit
+ Log = true
+ [Engine]
+
Compile "games.pgn" into a book "book.bin" retaining all lines of at
most 30 plies.
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
- The command line for using the UCI engine "fruit" in a GUI which uses
- the xboard protocol.
+ Inspect lines for white in "w.bin"
- polyglot -ec fruit
+ polyglot dump-book -bin w.bin -color white -out w_white.txt
- The equivalent config file:
+ Test epd file "test.epd" with a (maximum) search time of 7 minutes per
+ position
- [PolyGlot]
- EngineCommand = fruit
- [Engine]
+ polyglot epd-test -epd test.epd -max-time 420
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 and implementation of new WB protocol: Michel Van den Bergh
+ <michel.vandenbergh(at)uhasselt.be>
SEE ALSO
xboard(6)
- 2009-01-14 POLYGLOT(6)
+ 2012-09-17 POLYGLOT(6)
projects / polyglot.git / blobdiff