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26 <a name="Other-options"></a>
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33 <h3 class="section">4.8 Other options</h3>
35 <p><a name="index-Options_002c-miscellaneous-536"></a>
37 <dt>-ncp/-xncp or -noChessProgram true/false<dd><a name="index-ncp_002c-option-537"></a><a name="index-noChessProgram_002c-option-538"></a>If this option is true, XBoard acts as a passive chessboard; it
38 does not start a chess engine at all. Turning on this option
39 also turns off clockMode. Default: false.
40 <br><dt>-viewer<dt>-viewerOptions string<dd><a name="index-viewer_002c-option-539"></a><a name="index-viewerOptions_002c-option-540"></a>Presence of the volatile option <code>viewer</code> on the command line
41 will cause the value of the persistent option <code>viewerOptions</code>
42 as stored in the settings file to be appended to the command line.
43 The <code>view</code> option will be used by desktop associations with
44 game or position file types, so that <code>viewerOptions</code> can be
45 used to configure the exact mode XBoard will start in when it
46 should act on such a file (e.g. in -ncp mode, or analyzing
47 with your favorite engine). The options are also automatically
48 appended when Board is invoked with a single argument not being
49 an option name, which is then assumed to be the name of a
50 <code>loadGameFile</code> or (when the name ends in .fen) a
51 <code>loadPositionFile</code>.
52 Default: "-ncp -engineOutputUp false -saveSettingsOnExit false".
53 <br><dt>-tourneyOptions string<dd><a name="index-tourneyOptions_002c-option-541"></a>When XBoard is invoked with a single argument that is a file
54 with .trn extension, it will assume this argument to be the value
55 of a <code>tourneyFile</code> option,
56 and apped the value of the persistent option <code>tourneyOptions</code>
57 as stored in the settings file to the command line.
58 Thus the value of <code>tourneyOptions</code> can be
59 used to configure XBoard to automatically start running a
60 tournament when it should act on such a file.
61 Default: "-ncp -mm -saveSettingsOnExit false".
62 <br><dt>-mode or -initialMode modename<dd><a name="index-mode_002c-option-542"></a><a name="index-initalMode_002c-option-543"></a>If this option is given, XBoard selects the given modename
63 from the Mode menu after starting and (if applicable) processing the
64 loadGameFile or loadPositionFile option. Default: "" (no selection).
65 Other supported values are
66 MachineWhite, MachineBlack, TwoMachines, Analysis,
67 AnalyzeFile, EditGame, EditPosition, and Training.
68 <br><dt>-variant varname<dd><a name="index-variant_002c-option-544"></a>Activates preliminary, partial support for playing chess variants
69 against a local engine or editing variant games. This flag is not
70 needed in ICS mode. Recognized variant names are:
72 <pre class="example"> normal Normal chess
73 wildcastle Shuffle chess, king can castle from d file
74 nocastle Shuffle chess, no castling allowed
75 fischerandom Fischer Random shuffle chess
76 bughouse Bughouse, ICC/FICS rules
77 crazyhouse Crazyhouse, ICC/FICS rules
78 losers Lose all pieces or get mated (ICC wild 17)
79 suicide Lose all pieces including king (FICS)
80 giveaway Try to have no legal moves (ICC wild 26)
81 twokings Weird ICC wild 9
82 kriegspiel Opponent's pieces are invisible
83 atomic Capturing piece explodes (ICC wild 27)
84 3check Win by giving check 3 times (ICC wild 25)
85 shatranj An ancient precursor of chess (ICC wild 28)
86 xiangqi Chinese Chess (on a 9x10 board)
87 shogi Japanese Chess (on a 9x9 board & piece drops)
88 capablanca Capablanca Chess (10x8 board, with Archbishop
89 and Chancellor pieces)
90 gothic similar, with a better initial position
91 caparandom An FRC-like version of Capablanca Chess (10x8)
92 janus A game with two Archbishops (10x8 board)
93 courier Medieval intermediate between shatranj and
94 modern Chess (on 12x8 board)
95 falcon Patented 10x8 variant with two Falcon pieces
96 berolina Pawns capture straight ahead, and move diagonal
97 cylinder Pieces wrap around the board edge
98 knightmate King moves as Knight, and vice versa
99 super Superchess (shuffle variant with 4 exo-pieces)
100 makruk Thai Chess (shatranj-like, P promotes on 6th rank)
101 spartan Spartan Chess (black has unorthodox pieces)
102 fairy A catchall variant in which all piece types
103 known to XBoard can participate (8x8)
104 unknown Catchall for other unknown variants
106 <p>NOT ALL BOARDSIZES PROVIDE A COMPLETE SET OF BUILT-IN BITMAPS FOR ALL
107 UN-ORTHODOX PIECES, though. Only in <code>boardSize</code> middling and bulky
108 all 22 piece types are provided, while -boardSize petite has most
109 of them. Archbishop, Chancellor and Amazon are supported in every
110 size from petite to bulky. Kings or Amazons are substituted for
111 missing bitmaps. You can still play variants needing un-orthodox
112 pieces in other board sizes providing your own bitmaps through the
113 <code>bitmapDirectory</code> or <code>pixmapDirectory</code> options.
115 <p>In the shuffle variants, XBoard now does shuffle the pieces, although
116 you can still do it by hand using Edit Position. Some variants are
117 supported only in ICS mode, including bughouse, and
118 kriegspiel. The winning/drawing conditions in crazyhouse (off-board
119 interposition on mate) are not fully understood, but losers, suicide,
120 giveaway, atomic, and 3check should be OK.
121 Berolina and cylinder chess can only be played with legality testing off.
122 In crazyhouse, XBoard now does keep
123 track of off-board pieces. In shatranj it does implement the baring
124 rule when mate detection is switched on.
125 <br><dt>-boardHeight N<dd><a name="index-boardHeight_002c-option-545"></a>Allows you to set a non-standard number of board ranks in any variant.
126 If the height is given as -1, the default height for the variant is used.
128 <br><dt>-boardWidth N<dd><a name="index-boardWidth_002c-option-546"></a>Allows you to set a non-standard number of board files in any variant.
129 If the width is given as -1, the default width for the variant is used.
130 With a non-standard width, the initial position will always be an empty board,
131 as the usual opening array will not fit.
133 <br><dt>-holdingsSize N<dd><a name="index-holdingsSize_002c-option-547"></a>Allows you to set a non-standard size for the holdings in any variant.
134 If the size is given as -1, the default holdings size for the variant is used.
135 The first N piece types will go into the holdings on capture, and you will be
136 able to drop them on the board in stead of making a normal move. If size equals 0,
137 there will be no holdings.
139 <br><dt>-defaultFrcPosition N<dd><a name="index-defaultFrcPosition_002c-option-548"></a>Specifies the number of the opening position in shuffle games like Chess960.
140 A value of -1 means the position is randomly generated by XBoard
141 at the beginning of every game.
143 <br><dt>-pieceToCharTable string<dd><a name="index-pieceToCharTable_002c-option-549"></a>The characters that are used to represent the piece types XBoard knows in FEN
144 diagrams and SAN moves. The string argument has to have an even length
145 (or it will be ignored), as white and black pieces have to be given separately
146 (in that order). The last letter for each color will be the King.
147 The letters before that will be PNBRQ and then a whole host of fairy pieces
148 in an order that has not fully crystallized yet (currently FEACWMOHIJGDVSLU,
149 F=Ferz, Elephant, A=Archbishop, C=Chancellor, W=Wazir, M=Commoner, O=Cannon,
150 H=Nightrider). You should list at least all pieces that occur in the variant
151 you are playing. If you have less than 44 characters in the string, the pieces
152 not mentioned will get assigned a period, and you will not be able to distinguish
153 them in FENs. You can also explicitly assign pieces a period, in which case they
154 will not be counted in deciding which captured pieces can go into the holdings.
155 A tilde '~' as a piece name does mean this piece is used to represent a promoted
156 Pawn in crazyhouse-like games, i.e. on capture it turns back onto a Pawn.
157 A '+' similarly indicates the piece is a shogi-style promoted piece, that should
158 revert to its non-promoted version on capture (rather than to a Pawn).
159 Note that promoted pieces are represented by pieces 11 further in the list.
160 You should not have to use this option often: each variant has its own default
161 setting for the piece representation in FEN, which should be sufficient in normal use.
163 <br><dt>-pieceNickNames string<dd><a name="index-pieceNickNames_002c-option-550"></a>The characters in the string are interpreted the same way as in the
164 <code>pieceToCharTable</code> option. But on input, piece-ID letters are
165 first looked up in the nicknames, and only if not defined there,
166 in the normal pieceToCharTable. This allows you to have two letters
167 designate the same piece, (e.g. N as an alternative to H for Horse
168 in Xiangqi), to make reading of non-compliant notations easier.
170 <br><dt>-colorNickNames string<dd><a name="index-colorNickNames_002c-option-551"></a>The side-to-move field in a FEN will be first matched against the letters
171 in the string (first character for white, second for black),
172 before it is matched to the regular 'w' and 'b'.
173 This makes it easier to read non-compliant FENs,
174 which, say, use 'r' for white.
176 <br><dt>-debug/-xdebug or -debugMode true/false<dd><a name="index-debug_002c-option-552"></a><a name="index-debugMode_002c-option-553"></a>Turns on debugging printout.
177 <br><dt>-debugFile filename or -nameOfDebugFile filename<dd><a name="index-debugFile_002c-option-554"></a><a name="index-nameOfDebugFile_002c-option-555"></a>Sets the name of the file to which XBoard saves debug information
178 (including all communication to and from the engines).
179 A <kbd>%d</kbd> in the given file name (e.g. game%d.debug) will be replaced
180 by the unique sequence number of a tournament game,
181 so that the debug output of each game will be written on a separate file.
182 <br><dt>-engineDebugOutput number<dd><a name="index-engineDebugOutput_002c-option-556"></a>Specifies how XBoard should handle unsolicited output from the engine,
183 with respect to saving it in the debug file.
184 The output is further (hopefully) ignored.
185 If number=0, XBoard refrains from writing such spurious output to the debug file.
186 If number=1, all engine output is written faithfully to the debug file.
187 If number=2, any protocol-violating line is prefixed with a '#' character,
188 as the engine itself should have done if it wanted to submit info for inclusion in the debug file.
189 This option is provided for the benefit of applications that use the debug file
190 as a source of information, such as the broadcaster of live games TLCV / TLCS.
191 Such applications can be protected from spurious engine output that might otherwise confuse them.
192 <br><dt>-rsh or -remoteShell shell-name<dd><a name="index-rsh_002c-option-557"></a><a name="index-remoteShell_002c-option-558"></a>Name of the command used to run programs remotely. The default
193 is <samp><span class="file">rsh</span></samp> or <samp><span class="file">remsh</span></samp>, determined when XBoard is
194 configured and compiled.
195 <br><dt>-ruser or -remoteUser user-name<dd><a name="index-ruser_002c-option-559"></a><a name="index-remoteUser_002c-option-560"></a>User name on the remote system when running programs with the
196 <code>remoteShell</code>. The default is your local user name.
197 <br><dt>-userName username<dd><a name="index-userName_002c-option-561"></a>Name under which the Human player will be listed in the PGN file.
198 Default is the login name on your local computer.
199 <br><dt>-delayBeforeQuit number<dt>-delayAfterQuit number<dd><a name="index-delayBeforeQuit_002c-option-562"></a><a name="index-delayAfterQuit_002c-option-563"></a>These options specify how long XBoard has to wait before sending a termination signal to rogue engine processes, that do not want to react to the 'quit' command. The second one determines the pause after killing the engine, to make sure it dies.
200 <br><dt>-searchMode n<dd><a name="index-searchMode_002c-option-564"></a>The integer n encodes the mode for the ‘<samp><span class="samp">find position</span></samp>’ function.
201 Default: 1 (= Exact position match)
202 <br><dt>-eloThresholdBoth elo<dt>-eloThresholdAny elo<dd><a name="index-eloThresholdBoth_002c-option-565"></a><a name="index-eloThresholdAny_002c-option-566"></a>Defines a lower limit for the Elo rating, which has to be surpassed
203 before a game will be considered when searching for a board position.
205 <br><dt>-dateThreshold year<dd><a name="index-dateThreshold_002c-option-567"></a>Only games not played before the given year will be considered when
206 searching for a board position