When started on ACT will potentially look in 5 different places for files to examine for configuration information. ACT reads from the locations in order, so the user can override the default options. Note that on Macintosh and Windows systems the "current directory" mentioned below is the directory where the ACT application has been installed.
This is the search order:
The standard ACT options are read first. On UNIX this file is in the file etc/options in the ACT distribution directory. Changing that file will change the options settings for all users. On Macintosh and Windows system the standard options are stored in the ACT application itself and can't be changed (easily).
If the user has specified an options file on the command line with the -options argument, it will be read next. (UNIX only - see the section called UNIX Command Line Arguments for ACT in Chapter 2 for more).
If there is a file called diani.ini in the current directory it will be read. This is for backwards compatibility.
If there is a file called options, options.txt or options.text in the current directory it will be read.
If there is a file in the user's home directory called .artemis_options it will be read. (UNIX only).