5.1 pyFormex configuration files

On startup, pyFormex reads its configurable data from a number of files. Often there are not less than four configuration files, read in sequence. The settings in each file being read override the value read before. The different configuration files used serve different purposes. On a typical Linux installation, the following files will be read in sequence:

On exit,pyFormex will store the changed settings on the last user configuration file that was read. The first two files mentioned above are system configuration files and will never be changed by the pyFormex program. A user configuration file will be generated if none existed.

Currently, when pyFormex exits, it will just dump all the changed configuration (key,value) pairs on the last configuration file, together with the values it read from that file. pyFormex will not detect if any changes were made to that file between reading it and writing back. Therefore, the user should never edit the configuration files directly while pyFormex is still running. Always close the program first!