Configuration

This article is part of the Advanced User's Guide. It gives some more insight into the configuration of BaseX.

Configuration Files

BaseX maintains some configuration files, which are stored in the project’s Home Directory:

• .basex contains all options that are relevant for running the server or standalone versions of BaseX.
• .basexgui defines all options relevant to the BaseX GUI.
• .basexhistory contains commands that have been typed in most recently.
• .basexhome can be created by a user to mark a folder as home directory. Its contents do not matter, so it is usually empty.

Note that:

• Depending on your OS and configuration, files and folders with a '.' prefix may be hidden.
• In the Web Application context, options can be defined in the web.xml file.

Home Directory

As BaseX is distributed in different flavors, and may be started from different locations, it dynamically determines its home directory:

• First, the Java system property org.basex.path is checked. If it contains a value, it is chosen as directory path.
• If not, the current user directory (defined by the system property user.dir) is chosen if the .basex or .basexhome file is found in this directory.
• If not, the application directory (the folder in which BaseX is located) is chosen if one of these two files is found.
• In all other cases, a basex subdirectory in the user home directory will be returned. The user home directory is retrieved via the HOME environment variable, or (if unassigned), from the Java system property user.home.

If BaseX is used in an embedded environment (such as a servlet in a Web Application), it may not immediately be clear what directory was chosen. You can run the XQuery expression Q{org.basex.util.Prop}HOMEDIR() to find out.

Database Directory

Databases consists of several binary files. These are located in a directory named by the name of the database. The database root directory is named data.

The database path can be changed as follows:

• GUI: Choose Options → Preferences and choose a new database path.
• General: edit the DBPATH option in the .basex configuration file

Note: Existing databases will not automatically be moved to the new destination.

Log Files

Log files are stored in text format in a .logs sub-directory of the database folder (see Logging for more information).

Changelog

Version 9.0

• Updated: Detection and configuration of home directory and subdirectories.

Version 8.0

• Updated: .basexperm is obsolete. Users are now stored in users.xml in the database directory (see User Management for more information).

Version 7.7

• Updated: The .basexhome file marks a folder as home directory.