FGFSRC(5)

💖 FGFSRC(5) — the FlightGear command-line options file 💖

okay so bestie, this is the manual page for fgfsrc from the FlightGear man pages. Sit down, grab a strawberry 🍓, and let's get into it.

✨ NAME ✨

fgfsrc — the FlightGear command-line options file. that's the whole vibe 💅

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

So fgfsrc is literally just a file full of command-line options that fgfs(1) reads at startup. That's it. That's the girl. 🎀

Who is it for? It's for the people who do not use a graphical launcher to run the simulator. Because like, if you're launching from a terminal every single time, you deserve to put your most preferences that do not change often in one place — think custom scenery locations, custom aircraft locations, screen size options, all that — and then only put the stuff you change constantly (like the starting airport) on the command line. Chef's kiss. 👑

Now the rules, and there ARE rules:

• The file must be in plain-text format and ASCII-encoded. No fancy encoding, bestie. 🙈
• It must contain one or more command-line options listed in fgfs(1). If fgfs(1) doesn't know it, it doesn't go here.
• Each option must be given on a separate line. One option per line, no stacking, no chaos.

And the comment situation:

If the first non-whitespace character in a line is an octothorpe (#), then fgfs(1) treats that line as a comment and ignores it. Cute, right? But listen —

Do NOT add comments after an option. Like, not at the end of the line. That might cause the simulator to fail under some conditions — notably, when the command-line argument given on that line is of the form --prop=. So just… don't. 💀

And one more thing that gets people every time:

Variables in paths, like $HOME or $FG_HOME, are not expanded. Nope. Not a thing. It sees the literal characters and keeps it moving. 😭

🦋 FILES 🦋

• ~/.fgfsrc.hostname, ~/.fgfsrc — configuration files containing command-line options for fgfs(1).

Here's the order of operations, because it matters:

1. The simulator parses command-line arguments first.
2. Then it reads ~/.fgfsrc.hostname (where hostname is the hostname of the machine).
3. Then it reads ~/.fgfsrc.

…and it only reads those last two if they exist, in that order. so if you're on multiple machines, the hostname one lets you get specific per machine, iykyk ✨

🌈 EXAMPLE 🌈

Here's an example config file, and honestly? It's giving main character energy. It synchronizes the simulator clock with the local real-world time, loads real-world weather data, sets the window size to 1024x768, and enables random scenery objects and AI traffic:

--time-match-local
--enable-real-weather-fetch
--geometry=1024x768
--enable-random-objects
--enable-ai-traffic

Look at her. Five lines. Fully slaying. 🔥

💜 SEE ALSO 💜

• fgfs(1)

and that's the whole page, bestie — no cap. This was the FGFSRC(5) page from the FlightGear man pages, dated 2017-05-28. 🫶 periodt. 💖✨