manim/docs/source/tutorials/configuration.rst

289 lines
11 KiB
ReStructuredText

Configuration
=============
Manim provides an extensive configuration system that allows it to adapt to
many different use cases. The easiest way to do this is through the use of
command line (or *CLI*) arguments.
Command Line Arguments
**********************
Usually, manim is ran from the command line by executing
.. code-block:: bash
$ manim <file.py> SceneName
This asks manim to search for a Scene class called :code:`SceneName` inside the
file <file.py> and render it. One can also specify the render quality by using
the flags :code:`-l`, :code:`-m`, :code:`-e`, or :code:`-k`, for low, medium,
high, and 4k quality, respectively.
.. code-block:: bash
$ manim <file.py> SceneName -l
Another frequent flag is :code:`-p`, which makes manim show the rendered video
right after it's done rendering.
There are in fact many more command line flags that manim accepts. All the
possible flags are shown by the following command.
.. code-block:: bash
$ manim -h
The output looks as follows.
.. testcode::
:hide:
import subprocess
result = subprocess.run(['manim', '-h'], stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
print(result.stdout.decode('utf-8'))
.. testoutput::
:options: -ELLIPSIS, +NORMALIZE_WHITESPACE
usage: manim [-h] [-o OUTPUT_FILE] [-p] [-f] [--sound] [--leave_progress_bars]
[-a] [-w] [-s] [-g] [-i] [--disable_caching] [--flush_cache]
[--log_to_file] [-c BACKGROUND_COLOR]
[--background_opacity BACKGROUND_OPACITY] [--media_dir MEDIA_DIR]
[--log_dir LOG_DIR] [--tex_template TEX_TEMPLATE] [--dry_run]
[-t] [-l] [-m] [-e] [-k] [-r RESOLUTION]
[-n FROM_ANIMATION_NUMBER] [--config_file CONFIG_FILE]
[--custom_folders] [-v {DEBUG,INFO,WARNING,ERROR,CRITICAL}]
[--progress_bar True/False]
{cfg} ... file [scene_names [scene_names ...]]
Animation engine for explanatory math videos
positional arguments:
{cfg}
file path to file holding the python code for the scene
scene_names Name of the Scene class you want to see
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-o OUTPUT_FILE, --output_file OUTPUT_FILE
Specify the name of the output file, if it should be
different from the scene class name
-p, --preview Automatically open the saved file once its done
-f, --show_in_file_browser
Show the output file in the File Browser
--sound Play a success/failure sound
--leave_progress_bars
Leave progress bars displayed in terminal
-a, --write_all Write all the scenes from a file
-w, --write_to_movie Render the scene as a movie file (this is on by
default)
-s, --save_last_frame
Save the last frame only (no movie file is generated)
-g, --save_pngs Save each frame as a png
-i, --save_as_gif Save the video as gif
--disable_caching Disable caching (will generate partial-movie-files
anyway)
--flush_cache Remove all cached partial-movie-files
--log_to_file Log terminal output to file
-c BACKGROUND_COLOR, --background_color BACKGROUND_COLOR
Specify background color
--background_opacity BACKGROUND_OPACITY
Specify background opacity
--media_dir MEDIA_DIR
Directory to store media (including video files)
--log_dir LOG_DIR Directory to store log files
--tex_template TEX_TEMPLATE
Specify a custom TeX template file
--dry_run Do a dry run (render scenes but generate no output
files)
-t, --transparent Render a scene with an alpha channel
-l, --low_quality Render at low quality
-m, --medium_quality Render at medium quality
-e, --high_quality Render at high quality
-k, --fourk_quality Render at 4K quality
-r RESOLUTION, --resolution RESOLUTION
Resolution, passed as "height,width". Overrides the
-l, -m, -e, and -k flags, if present
-n FROM_ANIMATION_NUMBER, --from_animation_number FROM_ANIMATION_NUMBER
Start rendering at the specified animation index,
instead of the first animation. If you pass in two
comma separated values, e.g. '3,6', it will end the
rendering at the second value
--config_file CONFIG_FILE
Specify the configuration file
--custom_folders Use the folders defined in the [custom_folders]
section of the config file to define the output folder
structure
-v {DEBUG,INFO,WARNING,ERROR,CRITICAL}, --verbosity {DEBUG,INFO,WARNING,ERROR,CRITICAL}
Verbosity level. Also changes the ffmpeg log level
unless the latter is specified in the config
--progress_bar True/False
Display the progress bar
Made with <3 by the manim community devs
For example, to render a scene in high quality, but only output the last frame
of the scene instead of the whole video, you can execute
.. code-block:: bash
$ manim <file.py> SceneName -es
The following example specifies the output file name (with the :code:`-o`
flag), renders only the first ten animations (:code:`-n` flag) with a white
background (:code:`-c` flag), and saves the animation as a .gif instead of as a
.mp4 file (:code:`-i` flag). It uses the default quality and does not try to
open the file after it is rendered.
.. code-block:: bash
$ manim <file.py> SceneName -o myscene -i -n 0,10 -c WHITE
The config files
****************
As the last example shows, executing manim from the command line may involve
using many flags at the same. This may become a nuisance if you must execute
the same file many times in a short time period, for example when making small
incremental tweaks to your scene script. For this purpose, manim can also be
configured using a configuration file.
To use a configuration file when rendering your scene, you must create a file
with name :code:`manim.cfg` in the same directory as your scene code.
.. warning:: The config file **must** be named :code:`manim.cfg`. Currently,
manim does not support config files with any other name.
The config file must start with a section header, usually :code:`[CLI]`. The
configuration options under this header have the same name as the CLI flags,
and serve the same purpose. Take for example the following config file.
.. code-block::
[CLI]
output_file = myscene
save_as_gif = True
background_color = WHITE
Executing :code:`manim <file.py> SceneName` on a directory that contains this
config file is equivalent to executing
.. code-block:: bash
$ manim <file.py> SceneName -o myscene -i -c WHITE
on a directory that does not contain a config file.
.. note:: The names of the configuration options admissible in config files are
exactly the same as the **long names** of the corresponding command
line flags. For example, the :code:`-c` and
:code:`--background_color` flags are interchangeable, but the config
file only accepts :code:`background_color` as an admissible option.
.. note:: Configuration options that do not have command line analogues will be
ignored. For a list of all the command line flags, see `Command Line
Arguments`_.
Manim will look for a :code:`manim.cfg` config file in the same directory as
the file being rendered, and **not** in the directory of execution. For
example,
.. code-block:: bash
$ manim <file.py> path/to/SceneName -o myscene -i -c WHITE
will use the config file found in :code:`path/to/SceneName`, if any. It will
**not** use the config file found in the current working directory, even if it
exists. In this way, the user may keep different config files for different
scenes or projects, and execute them with the right configuration from anywhere
in the system.
.. note:: Config files will ignore any line that starts with a pound symbol
:code:`#`.
The user config file
********************
As explained in the previous section, a :code:`manim.cfg` config file only
affects the scene scripts in its same directory. However, the user may also
create a special config file that will apply to all scenes rendered by that
user. This is referred to as the **user-wide** config file, and it will apply
regardless of where manim is executed from, and regardless of where the scene
script is stored.
The user-wide config file lives in a special folder, depending on the operating
system.
* Windows: :code:`UserDirectory`/AppData/Roaming/Manim/manim.cfg
* MacOS: :code:`UserDirectory`/config/manim/manim.cfg
* Linux: :code:`UserDirectory`/config/manim/manim.cfg
Here, :code:`UserDirectory` is the user's home folder.
.. note:: Config files that only apply to their own folder, explained in the
previous section, are called **folder-wide** config files. A user
may have many folder-wide config files, one per folder, but only one
**user-wide** config file. Different users in the same computer may
each have their own user-wide config file.
.. warning:: Do not store scene scripts in the same folder as the user-wide
config file. In this case, the behavior is undefined.
Whenever you use manim from anywhere in the system, manim will look for a
user-wide config file and read its configuration.
Cascading config files
**********************
What happens if you execute manim and it finds both a folder-wide config file
and a user-wide config file? Manim will read both files, but if they are
incompatible, **the folder-wide file takes precedence**.
For example, take the following user-wide config file
.. code-block::
# user-wide
[CLI]
output_file = myscene
save_as_gif = True
background_color = WHITE
and the following folder-wide file
.. code-block::
# folder-wide
[CLI]
save_as_gif = False
Then, executing :code:`manim <file.py> SceneName` will be equivalent to not
using any config files and executing
.. code-block:: bash
manim <file.py> SceneName -o myscene -c WHITE
Any command line flags have precedence over any config file. For example,
using the previous two config files and executing :code:`manim <file.py>
SceneName -c RED` is equivalent to not using any config files and executing
.. code-block:: bash
manim <file.py> SceneName -o myscene -c RED
To summarize, the order of precedence for configuration options is: *user-wide
config file < folder-wide config file < CLI flags*.
.. note:: There is also a **library-wide** config file that determines manim's
default behavior, and applies to every user of the library. It has
the least precedence, and **the user should not try to modify it**.
Developers should receive explicit confirmation from the core
developer team before modifying it.