<html><head><title>Gavare's eXperimental Emulator: Configuration files</title>
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<b>GXemul:</b></font>
<font color="#000000" size="6"><b>Configuration files</b>
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<p><br>
<h2>Configuration files</h2>
<p>
<ul>
<li><a href="#intro">Introduction</a>
<li><a href="#config">Configuration file syntax</a>
<li><a href="#minimal">A minimal example</a>
</ul>
<p><br>
<a name="intro"></a>
<h3>Introduction:</h3>
GXemul can be started by entering machine settings directly on the command
line, or by reading a configuration file (a "configuration script").
<p>Configuration files in GXemul are useful/necessary for three reasons:
<p><ol>
<li>It can be difficult to remember long command lines with
lots of options.
<li>Some settings cannot be fully controlled on the command line. They can
only be set using configuration files.
<li>Complex setups of multiple machines, or complex network setups,
are not supported on the command line.
</ol>
<p><br>
<a name="config"></a>
<h3>Configuration file syntax:</h3>
Configuration files are simple text files. I don't have time to write
down a formal syntax right now, so I hope that conveying the syntax
through an example is good enough:
<p>
<table border="0"><tr><td width="40"> </td><td>
<pre>
<font color="#2020cf">! This is an example configuration file for GXemul.
! Anything following an exclamation mark (and also the exclamation
! mark itself) is ignored.
!
! Almost all settings are optional.</font>
<b>name(<font color="#ff003f">"my test emul"</font>)</b> <font color="#2020cf">! Optional name of this emulation</font>
<font color="#2020cf">! This creates an ethernet network:</font>
<b>net(</b>
<b>ipv4net(<font color="#ff003f">"10.2.0.0"</font>)</b> <font color="#2020cf">! The default is 10.0.0.0/8, but</font>
<b>ipv4len(16)</b> <font color="#2020cf">! it can be overridden like this.</font>
<font color="#2020cf">! local_port(12345)</font>
<font color="#2020cf">! add_remote("localhost:12346")</font>
<b>)</b>
<font color="#2020cf">! This creates a machine:</font>
<b>machine(</b>
<b>name(<font color="#ff003f">"My test machine"</font>)</b>
<font color="#2020cf">! serial_nr(123) ! Useful when emulating multiple machines</font>
<font color="#2020cf"> ! on multiple hosts, and they need to have</font>
<font color="#2020cf"> ! unique MAC addresses, etc.</font>
<b>type(<font color="#ff003f">"dec"</font>)</b> <font color="#2020cf">! This is actually not optional</font>
<b>subtype(<font color="#ff003f">"5000/200"</font>)</b>
<b>cpu(<font color="#ff003f">"R3000"</font>)</b> <font color="#2020cf">! Normally set implicitly to a reasonable</font>
<font color="#2020cf">! value, depending on <i>type</i> and <i>subtype</i></font>
<font color="#2020cf">! ncpus(4)</font>
<font color="#2020cf">! use_random_bootstrap_cpu(yes)</font>
<b>memory(128)</b> <font color="#2020cf">! 128 MB memory. This overrides</font>
<font color="#2020cf">! the default amount of memory for</font>
<font color="#2020cf">! this machine type.</font>
<font color="#2020cf">! random_mem_contents(yes)</font>
<font color="#2020cf">! prom_emulation(no)</font>
<font color="#2020cf">! byte_order(big) ! Normally set implicitly (because</font>
<font color="#2020cf">! of <i>type</i> and <i>subtype</i>, or decided</font>
<font color="#2020cf">! from the file loaded with <i>load</i></font>
<b>load(<font color="#ff003f">"netbsd-INSTALL"</font>)</b>
<b>bootname(<font color="#ff003f">"netbsd"</font>)</b>
<b>bootarg(<font color="#ff003f">"-a"</font>)</b>
<font color="#2020cf">! n_gfx_cards(2) ! for DECstation dual/tripple-head</font>
<font color="#2020cf">! emulated_hz(10000000) ! for setting the emulated clock speed (mostly fake)</font>
<font color="#2020cf">! add_x11_display("otherbox:0") ! for dual/tripple-head etc</font>
<font color="#2020cf">! add_x11_display("thisbox:0")</font>
<font color="#2020cf">{
Devices can be added like this:
device("ns16550 addr=0x18000800 addr_mult=4")
The name comes first, followed by optional parameters.
Remember to use 0x for hexadecimal values.
}</font>
<font color="#2020cf">! force_netboot(yes)</font>
<font color="#2020cf">! start_paused(yes)</font>
<b>disk(<font color="#ff003f">"nbsd.img"</font>)</b>
<b>disk(<font color="#ff003f">"6c:cdrom.iso"</font>)</b>
<b>use_x11(yes)</b>
<b>x11_scaledown(2)</b>
<font color="#2020cf">! slow_serial_interrupts_hack_for_linux(yes)</font>
<font color="#2020cf">{
Long comments spanning multiple lines should be surrounded
with tuborg parentheses.
{ Long comments can be nested. }
<!--
<b><i>... TODO ...
-i display each instruction as it is executed
-J disable some speed tricks
-m nr run at most nr instructions (on any cpu)
-N display nr of instructions/second average, at regular intervals
-p pc add a breakpoint (remember to use the '0x' prefix for hex!)
-r register dumps before every instruction
-t show function trace tree
</i></b>-->
}</font>
<b>)</b>
<font color="#2020cf">! Multiple machine definitions are allowed.</font>
<b>machine(</b>
<b>name(<font color="#ff003f">"another machine"</font>)</b>
<b>type(<font color="#ff003f">"hpcmips"</font>)</b>
<b>subtype(<font color="#ff003f">"be300"</font>)</b>
<i>...</i>
<b>)</b>
</pre>
</td></tr></table>
<p>
Starting the emulator with a configuration file is as simple as
<pre>
$ <b>gxemul @myconfig</b>
</pre>
if <b>myconfig</b> is the name of the configuration file.
<p><br>
<a name="minimal"></a>
<h3>A minimal example:</h3>
Here is an example of what a minimal configuration file might look like:
<p><table border="0"><tr><td width="40"> </td><td><pre>
<b>machine(</b>
<b>subtype(<font color="#ff003f">"3max"</font>)</b>
<b>load(<font color="#ff003f">"netbsd-pmax-INSTALL-2.0"</font>)</b>
<b>)</b>
</pre>
</td></tr></table>
<p>For most machine types, <tt>type</tt> is needed. If only
<tt>subtype</tt> is specified, and the name is unique (i.e. there is only
one major type which has such a subtype), then the <tt>type</tt> can be
omitted. Also, adding a <tt>net</tt> is quite useful, especially for
netbooting kernels.
</p>
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