Text Config

About textual configuration files

Most of the time, needing to deal with text-based configuration files directly can be avoided by using the GUI.

When a text-based configuration file is needed you can specify it on the command-line using the --config option. Example: synergys --config /path/to/synergy.conf

Example textual configuration file

This example comes from doc/synergy-basic.conf

# sample synergy configuration file
#
# comments begin with the # character and continue to the end of
# line.  comments may appear anywhere the syntax permits.
# +-------+  +--------+ +---------+
# |Laptop |  |Desktop1| |iMac     |
# |       |  |        | |         |
# +-------+  +--------+ +---------+

section: screens
	# three hosts named:  Laptop, Desktop1, and iMac
	# These are the nice names of the hosts to make it easy to write the config file
	# The aliases section below contain the "actual" names of the hosts (their hostnames)
	Laptop:
	Desktop1:
	iMac:
end

section: links
	# iMac is to the right of Desktop1
	# Laptop is to the left of Desktop1
	Desktop1:
		right = iMac
		left  = Laptop

	# Desktop1 is to the right of Laptop
	Laptop:
		right = Desktop1

	# Desktop1 is to the left of iMac
	iMac:
		left  = Desktop1
end

section: aliases
	# The "real" name of iMac is John-Smiths-iMac-3.local. If we wanted we could remove this alias and instead use John-Smiths-iMac-3.local everywhere iMac is above. Hopefully it should be easy to see why using an alias is nicer
	iMac:
		John-Smiths-iMac-3.local
end

Available options

TODO.

section: screens
	client1:
		preserveFocus = true # Don't drop focus when switching screens
end

See also: the man page for synergys

Why would I want to use a text-based config?

The number one reason is that you don't really have a choice. If you aren't using a gui than you have to use a text-based config file.

The second reason is that it gives you more control. The GUI cannot create advanced configuration such as non-reciprocal connections. An example of a non-reciprocal connection would be that if you go right from screen A you get to screen B, but if you then go left from screen B you get to screen C rather than back to screen A as you would in a reciprocal connection.

Other considerations:

• You can use a version control system
• It's easier to share configs with people
• You can have multiple config files (like if you use a laptop in multiple places)

Tips/Notes

The GUI actually creates a text-based config behind the scenes.