commandline.cfg

commandline.cfg is a KeyValues configuration file used by Source map compilers (VBSP, VVIS and VRAD) to inject additional command-line arguments during the build process. Introduced in all compiler versions since Source 2006.

The file is read from the game directory folders and the cfg/commandline.cfg path before the compilation process begins.

File Example

"CommandLine"
{
	"map_name_1" // map name without file format
	{
		"vbsp"	"-onlyents -glview"
		"vvis"	"-fast"
		"vrad"	"-staticproplighting -textureshadows"
	}
	
	"map_name_2"
	{
		"vrad"	"-both -final"
	}
}

Impact on the compiling process

If any compiler finds its own additional compilation arguments for this map, the console will display the line Command Line found: <arguments from file>. These parameters will be added to the end of the compiler command line (except for the map file), so this:

vbsp.exe -verbose mymap.vmf

will turn into this:

vbsp.exe -verbose -onlyents -glview mymap.vmf

Implementation in Code

The logic is handled by the LoadCmdLineFromFile function, located in public/loadcmdline.cpp.

The function and its header public/loadcmdline.h are used in the following places:

• utils/vbsp/vbsp.cpp in function RunVBSP
• utils/vrad/vrad.cpp in function VRAD_Main
• utils/vvis/vvis.cpp in function RunVVis