The Persistent Configuration File

Semplice's behaviour is controlled by the various settings found in its persistent configuration file, which is a text file called $HOME/.local/share/semplice2/txt/semplice.conf. Since it is a text file, it can be edited directly in any text editor you happen to favour. However, it consists of a set of keyword=value parameters whose meaning and legal values may not be obvious to you, so whenever you want to alter its contents, it's much better to use Semplice's own specific menu option to do so: the Miscellaneous menu, Option 1 : Edit Configuration File. Taking that option will bring up screens like this one:

…in which textual prompts are paired with data entry fields. The text prompts use natural language wherever possible and the values you assign to them are also in natural language (for example, yes or no answers, rather than binary 1 or 0 values).

There are four such screens to work with, each one relating to a specific aspect of Semplice's behaviour. The one you see above controls everything about how Semplice rips music from audio CDs: what is the CD drive designator, where should ripped files be stored on hard disk, should CDs be ripped to standard or high-resolution FLACs, and so on. The specific consequence of setting or unsetting any of these parameters should be determined by reading the relevant section of the User Manual: for CD ripping, for example, you'd want to consult this page of the manual.

The second page of the configuration file wizard deals with all the ways in which Semplice embeds metadata tags within FLAC files (so see this user manual page and its child pages for the details of what those options mean). The other two pages of configuration options deal with SuperFLAC and Audio Processing options.

Note that once you start editing the configuration file this way, you must complete the <em>entire</em> wizard. If you quit half-way through by selecting the 'Cancel' option, the parameters which are reached after the screen you cancelled on are all set to their default values, which may not be what you want. Always step through all four pages of the wizard therefore: if you don't want to alter any parameters, just press [Enter] to skip through with the currently-set values persisting.

Generally, the default values for most parameters should be acceptable and safe out-of-the-box (though things like where to rip audio files to will, of course, be highly susceptible to a user's unique requirements). For example, the 'default FLAC audio resolution' option you see in the above screenshot will default to 'standard', though values of standard, high and extreme are all valid. If you attempt to set a parameter to an illegal value (for example, setting 'default FLAC audio resolution' to the string 'anything you like'), the default value will be applied instead. Occasionally, setting a value for a parameter will cause changes to be made to your PC, though this is very rare: for example, if you set 'Rip CDs to folder' to a path/folder combo which doesn't exist but which could be created, then the path/folder combo will actually be created for you.

The following table lists all persistent configuration parameter names in both their 'plain English' forms and the form in which they are stored within the configuration file. It shows the default value where one applies and briefly describes the effect the parameter has on the way Semplice works.

Detailed descriptions of most parameters and their effects can be found in the relevant sections of the User Manual.

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