Configuration

cde and cde-tauri read their settings from one appsettings.json file. cdeWin is different: it reads the appsettings.json next to cdeWin.exe.

Where the file is

cde looks in this order and uses the first file it finds. It does not merge files.

1. The config folder:
   • Windows: %APPDATA%\cde\
   • Linux and macOS: ~/.config/cde/ (or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/cde/)
   • Any system: the folder in the CDE_CONFIG_DIR environment variable, if it is set.
2. The current directory.
3. The folder that holds the executable. The file that ships beside cde is found here.

If there is no file, cde writes a default appsettings.json to the config folder, creating the folder, and uses it. It never overwrites a file that exists. If the folder cannot be written (a read-only home folder, for example), cde uses the same defaults built in.

To change a setting, edit the file in the config folder. Or copy the file that shipped beside the executable into the config folder.

Any setting can also be given on the command line in the form --Section:Key=Value:

cde scan C:\ --Serilog:MinimumLevel=Information

Default file

{
  "AppConfig": {
    "Display": {
      "ProgressUpdateInterval": 5000
    },
    "Hashing": {
      "FirstPassSizeInBytes": 65536,
      "DegreesOfParallelism": 2
    },
    "Scan": {
      "ExcludePaths": []
    }
  },
  "Serilog": {
    "MinimumLevel": "Warning",
    "WriteTo": [{ "Name": "Console" }]
  }
}

The file that ships beside the executable also has a Seq sink for a log server on localhost:5341. Delete that entry from Serilog.WriteTo if you do not run one. The default file that cde writes has no Seq sink.

AppConfig settings

Setting	Default	Meaning
AppConfig.Display.ProgressUpdateInterval	5000	The number of entries scanned between progress updates.
AppConfig.Hashing.FirstPassSizeInBytes	65536	How many bytes at the start of a file the first hashing pass reads.
AppConfig.Hashing.DegreesOfParallelism	2	How many hashers run at once on one file system. Different file systems are always hashed in parallel.
AppConfig.Scan.ExcludePaths	[]	Folders that a scan records but does not go into. See below.
AppConfig.Scan.UseDefaultExcludes	true	Skip the built-in list of system folders on Linux and macOS. See below.
AppConfig.Scan.StaleAfterDays	30	cde-tauri marks a catalog stale when its last scan is older than this many days. 0 turns the marker off.
AppConfig.Scan.RescanStaleOnStartup	false	cde-tauri rescans the stale catalogs once, after the first catalog load of a session.
AppConfig.Scan.Threads	4	Folders a scan reads at the same time. The catalog is the same for any value. Lower it for a network share or a spinning disk.

caution

If you change FirstPassSizeInBytes after you made catalogs with hashes, delete those catalogs, scan again and hash again.

Excluding folders

AppConfig.Scan.ExcludePaths is a list of absolute folder paths, or bare folder names. The scan records an excluded folder as an empty entry and does not go into it. An excluded folder is not reported as an error.

• A path covers that folder and everything under it. * matches inside one path segment (/home/*/.cache). There is no **.
• A bare name with no separator, such as node_modules or .git, excludes a folder of that name at any depth below the scan root. * works inside the name. It never excludes the scan root itself.
• A trailing /* excludes what is inside a folder but not the folder: /tmp/* skips the children of /tmp, while /tmp is still recorded and entered.
• Matching is case-sensitive, except on Windows, where it ignores case and / and \ are the same. Default macOS volumes (APFS and HFS+) are case-insensitive, so on macOS write patterns with the folder's real case.
• Entries that are blank, or relative with a separator, are logged and ignored.
• The folder you scan, and every folder above it, is never excluded. cde scan /tmp/work still scans /tmp/work when /tmp is excluded. Paths below the scan root still apply.
• The setting applies to cde scan, and to creating and rescanning catalogs in cde-tauri. Nothing is stored in the catalog. A rescan uses the settings at the time of the rescan, so edit the file and rescan to change what is skipped.

Use cde scan --exclude <path> to add folders for one scan only.

Default excludes on Linux and macOS

When AppConfig.Scan.UseDefaultExcludes is true, a scan on Linux also skips:

/proc, /sys, /dev, /run, /tmp, /var/tmp, /var/cache, /var/spool, /var/lock, /lost+found and /home/*/.cache.

/var/spool can hold user mail. Scan it on purpose if you want it. ExcludePaths adds to this list. Set the option to false to scan these folders.

On macOS the option skips /dev, /.Spotlight-V100 and /.fseventsd instead (the last two are the per-volume Spotlight index and file system events store at a volume root). The two dot folders are anchored at /, so they apply when you scan from /; to exclude them on another volume add a pattern such as /Volumes/<name>/.Spotlight-V100. It has no effect on Windows, which has no built-in list.

Logging

cde writes to the console with Serilog. It is quiet by default (Warning). To see which settings file it uses (Using configuration from <path>), set Serilog.MinimumLevel to Information in the file, or pass --Serilog:MinimumLevel=Information.

cde-tauri and cdeWin

• cde-tauri reads Cde.ConfigPath (the folder to load catalogs from, default .) and CustomCommands. It layers shell.json from the same config folder over them. See Applications.
• cdeWin reads CustomCommands from the appsettings.json beside cdeWin.exe.