SW_ConfigCmdLine

Configuration by Command Line Arguments

telex.py as the main routine of piTelex can be called with a bunch of cmdline arguments. These are primarily meant for temporary overriding or generation of the main configuration file, which defaults to telex.json. Your final configuration should be represented by this file, so that specifying command line arguments should be obsolete, except perhaps -c to specify the correct config file (this could be necessary e.g. if you plan to run more than one instance of pitelex from the same account).

Below is a list of all command line parameters together with a short explanation, as well as a link to further corresponding documentation.

You can also get a summary of the command line arguments by calling telex.py --help.

piTelex Arguments

Teletype interfaces

arg short	arg long	Description	default	See also
-G	--RPiTW39	enable GPIO on RPi with TW39 teletype	false	RPiTTY
	--RPiCtrl	enable RPi button controls and LEDs	false	RPiCtrl
-X	--terminal	set serial terminal device (8-bit ASCII)	none	Terminal
-Y <TTY>	--tty <TTY>	use CH340 USB adapter with teletype w/o dialling	none	CH340TTY
-W <TTY>	--ttyTW39 <TTY>	use CH340 USB adapter with TW39 teletype (pulse dial)	none	CH340TTY
-M <TTY>	--ttyTW39 <TTY>	use CH340 USB adapter with TWM teletype (keypad dial)	none	CH340TTY
-V <TTY>	--ttyV10 <TTY>	use CH340 USB adapter with V.10 teletype (FS220,FS200)	none	CH340TTY
-E	--audioED1000	enable USB sound card with ED1000 teletype	false	ED1000
	--noscreen	disable screen I/O	true	Screen

Gateways to the Outside World

arg short	arg long	Description	default	See also
-I <port>	--iTelex <port>	enable i-Telex client (and server if <port> > 0)	-1	iTelexClient iTelexServer
-N <path>	--news <path>	enable newsticker (news in folder <path>)	none	News
-T <twa>	--twitter <twa>	enable twitter client (access details in , see docs)	none	Twitter
	--twitterv2 <twa>	enable twitter client (access details in , see docs)	none	Twitter
-C <chan>	--IRC <chan>	enable IRC Client with channel <chan>	none	IRC
-R <templ>	--REST <templ>	enable REST client with Template <templ>	none	REST

Further options

arg short	arg long	Description	default	See also
-Z	--eliza	enable Eliza chat bot	false	Eliza
-A	--archive	enable archive module	false	Archive
-S	--shellcmd	enable dictionary of shellcommands	false	ShellCmd
-L <file>	--log <file>	Log all incoming and outgoing characters to <file>	none	Log
-d <level>	--debug <level>	turn on debugging at<level>	0	deprecated
-c <file>	--config <file>	set name of central confguration file	./telex.json	ConfigFile
-k <id>	--id <id>	set machine id ("Kennungsgeber") leave empty to use Hardware ID	none	ConfigFile: wru_id
	--id-fallback	use software id (set with -k) in case of hardware failure	false	ConfigFile: wru_replace_always
	--errorlogpath <path>	specify path of errlog directory	./	ConfigFile: errorlog_path
-q	--quiet	disable status messages to stdout	true
-s	--save	write actual config to configfile	false
-h	--help	display help message and exit

With the arguments above only a subset of program and module properties can be set. telex.json can (and probably must) be fine-tuned by editing it by hand with a text editor of your choice.

Initial setup

Instead of fiddling with the full blown telex.json from the distribution which contains nearly all possible combinations and variants and therefore might be confusing for the first time user, you can use a more convenient method described below.

1. Optional, but recommended: save the original telex.json for future use, e.g.:

     cp telex.json telex.json.orig
   

2. produce a stripped down config file that is tailored to your needs. For a standard current loop TW39 setup with i-Telex connectivity on port 2342 this could be achieved by e.g.

    ./telex.py --RPiTW39 --iTelex 2342 --log pitelex.log --id "134567 dummy d" --save [--config mypitelexconfig.json]
   

   If you omit the specification of a file name by --config, the default file telex.json will be overwritten without warning.

3. After that,telex.json resp. mypitelexconfig.json contains your 'bare metal' config, equipped with default settings.

4. You may now edit the file to reflect non-standard conditions (e.g. different GPIO-lines). For this fine tuning all options from section Configuration file can be used.

With a fine-tuned config-file the cmdline args can be omitted when calling telex.py - unless you want to temporarily add/overwrite a feature.

Hint: Remember to pass the correct filename to 'telex.py' (e.g. ./telex.py -c mypitelexconfig.json) if you did not overwrite the default file telex.json in step 2 :-)