Environment Variables

Normally, no environment variables need to be set. Most of the environment variables used by Mesa/Gallium are for debugging purposes, but they can sometimes be useful for debugging end-user issues.

LibGL environment variables

LIBGL_DEBUG If defined debug information will be printed to stderr. If set to verbose additional information will be printed. LIBGL_DRIVERS_PATH colon-separated list of paths to search for DRI drivers LIBGL_ALWAYS_INDIRECT if set to true, forces an indirect rendering context/connection. LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE if set to true, always use software rendering LIBGL_NO_DRAWARRAYS if set to true, do not use DrawArrays GLX protocol (for debugging) LIBGL_SHOW_FPS print framerate to stdout based on the number of glXSwapBuffers calls per second. LIBGL_DRI2_DISABLE disable DRI2 if set to true. LIBGL_DRI3_DISABLE disable DRI3 if set to true.

Core Mesa environment variables

MESA_NO_ASM if set, disables all assembly language optimizations MESA_NO_MMX if set, disables Intel MMX optimizations MESA_NO_3DNOW if set, disables AMD 3DNow! optimizations MESA_NO_SSE if set, disables Intel SSE optimizations MESA_NO_ERROR if set to 1, error checking is disabled as per KHR_no_error. This will result in undefined behavior for invalid use of the API, but can reduce CPU use for apps that are known to be error free. MESA_DEBUG if set, error messages are printed to stderr. For example, if the application generates a GL_INVALID_ENUM error, a corresponding error message indicating where the error occurred, and possibly why, will be printed to stderr. For release builds, MESA_DEBUG defaults to off (no debug output). MESA_DEBUG accepts the following comma-separated list of named flags, which adds extra behavior to just set MESA_DEBUG=1:

silent turn off debug messages. Only useful for debug builds. flush flush after each drawing command incomplete_tex extra debug messages when a texture is incomplete incomplete_fbo extra debug messages when a FBO is incomplete context create a debug context (see GLX_CONTEXT_DEBUG_BIT_ARB) and print error and performance messages to stderr (or MESA_LOG_FILE).

MESA_LOG_FILE specifies a file name for logging all errors, warnings, etc., rather than stderr MESA_TEX_PROG if set, implement conventional texture environment modes with fragment programs (intended for developers only) MESA_TNL_PROG if set, implement conventional vertex transformation operations with vertex programs (intended for developers only). Setting this variable automatically sets the MESA_TEX_PROG variable as well. MESA_EXTENSION_OVERRIDE can be used to enable/disable extensions. A value such as GL_EXT_foo -GL_EXT_bar will enable the GL_EXT_foo extension and disable the GL_EXT_bar extension. MESA_EXTENSION_MAX_YEAR The GL_EXTENSIONS string returned by Mesa is sorted by extension year. If this variable is set to year X, only extensions defined on or before year X will be reported. This is to work-around a bug in some games where the extension string is copied into a fixed-size buffer without truncating. If the extension string is too long, the buffer overrun can cause the game to crash. This is a work-around for that. MESA_GL_VERSION_OVERRIDE changes the value returned by glGetString(GL_VERSION) and possibly the GL API type.

  • The format should be MAJOR.MINOR[FC|COMPAT]

  • FC is an optional suffix that indicates a forward compatible context. This is only valid for versions >= 3.0.

  • COMPAT is an optional suffix that indicates a compatibility context or GL_ARB_compatibility support. This is only valid for versions >= 3.1.

  • GL versions <= 3.0 are set to a compatibility (non-Core) profile

  • GL versions = 3.1, depending on the driver, it may or may not have the ARB_compatibility extension enabled.

  • GL versions >= 3.2 are set to a Core profile

  • Examples:

    2.1 select a compatibility (non-Core) profile with GL version 2.1. 3.0 select a compatibility (non-Core) profile with GL version 3.0. 3.0FC select a Core+Forward Compatible profile with GL version 3.0. 3.1 select GL version 3.1 with GL_ARB_compatibility enabled per the driver default. 3.1FC select GL version 3.1 with forward compatibility and GL_ARB_compatibility disabled. 3.1COMPAT select GL version 3.1 with GL_ARB_compatibility enabled. X.Y override GL version to X.Y without changing the profile. X.YFC select a Core+Forward Compatible profile with GL version X.Y. X.YCOMPAT select a Compatibility profile with GL version X.Y.

  • Mesa may not really implement all the features of the given version. (for developers only)

MESA_GLES_VERSION_OVERRIDE changes the value returned by glGetString(GL_VERSION) for OpenGL ES.

  • The format should be MAJOR.MINOR
  • Examples: 2.0, 3.0, 3.1
  • Mesa may not really implement all the features of the given version. (for developers only)

MESA_GLSL_VERSION_OVERRIDE changes the value returned by glGetString(GL_SHADING_LANGUAGE_VERSION). Valid values are integers, such as 130. Mesa will not really implement all the features of the given language version if it's higher than what's normally reported. (for developers only) MESA_GLSL_CACHE_DISABLE if set to true, disables the GLSL shader cache. If set to false, enables the GLSL shader cache when it is disabled by default. MESA_GLSL_CACHE_MAX_SIZE if set, determines the maximum size of the on-disk cache of compiled GLSL programs. Should be set to a number optionally followed by K, M, or G to specify a size in kilobytes, megabytes, or gigabytes. By default, gigabytes will be assumed. And if unset, a maximum size of 1GB will be used.

.. note::

  A separate cache might be created for each architecture that Mesa is
  installed for on your system. For example under the default settings
  you may end up with a 1GB cache for x86_64 and another 1GB cache for
  i386.

MESA_GLSL_CACHE_DIR if set, determines the directory to be used for the on-disk cache of compiled GLSL programs. If this variable is not set, then the cache will be stored in $XDG_CACHE_HOME/mesa_shader_cache (if that variable is set), or else within .cache/mesa_shader_cache within the user's home directory. MESA_GLSL :ref:shading language compiler options <envvars> MESA_NO_MINMAX_CACHE when set, the minmax index cache is globally disabled. MESA_SHADER_CAPTURE_PATH see :ref:Capturing Shaders <capture> MESA_SHADER_DUMP_PATH and MESA_SHADER_READ_PATH see :ref:Experimenting with Shader Replacements <replacement> MESA_VK_VERSION_OVERRIDE changes the Vulkan physical device version as returned in VkPhysicalDeviceProperties::apiVersion.

  • The format should be MAJOR.MINOR[.PATCH]
  • This will not let you force a version higher than the driver's instance version as advertised by vkEnumerateInstanceVersion
  • This can be very useful for debugging but some features may not be implemented correctly. (For developers only) MESA_LOADER_DRIVER_OVERRIDE chooses a different driver binary such as etnaviv or zink.

NIR passes environment variables

The following are only applicable for drivers that uses NIR, as they modify the behavior for the common NIR_PASS and NIR_PASS_V macros, that wrap calls to NIR lowering/optimizations.

NIR_PRINT If defined, the resulting NIR shader will be printed out at each successful NIR lowering/optimization call. NIR_TEST_CLONE If defined, cloning a NIR shader would be tested at each successful NIR lowering/optimization call. NIR_TEST_SERIALIZE If defined, serialize and deserialize a NIR shader would be tested at each successful NIR lowering/optimization call.

Mesa Xlib driver environment variables

The following are only applicable to the Mesa Xlib software driver. See the :doc:Xlib software driver page <xlibdriver> for details.

MESA_RGB_VISUAL specifies the X visual and depth for RGB mode MESA_BACK_BUFFER specifies how to implement the back color buffer, either pixmap or ximage MESA_GAMMA gamma correction coefficients for red, green, blue channels MESA_XSYNC enable synchronous X behavior (for debugging only) MESA_GLX_FORCE_CI if set, force GLX to treat 8 BPP visuals as CI visuals MESA_GLX_FORCE_ALPHA if set, forces RGB windows to have an alpha channel. MESA_GLX_DEPTH_BITS specifies default number of bits for depth buffer. MESA_GLX_ALPHA_BITS specifies default number of bits for alpha channel.

i945/i965 driver environment variables (non-Gallium)

INTEL_NO_HW if set to 1, prevents batches from being submitted to the hardware. This is useful for debugging hangs, etc. INTEL_DEBUG a comma-separated list of named flags, which do various things:

ann annotate IR in assembly dumps aub dump batches into an AUB trace for use with simulation tools bat emit batch information blit emit messages about blit operations blorp emit messages about the blorp operations (blits & clears) buf emit messages about buffer objects clip emit messages about the clip unit (for old gens, includes the CLIP program) color use color in output cs dump shader assembly for compute shaders do32 generate compute shader SIMD32 programs even if workgroup size doesn't exceed the SIMD16 limit dri emit messages about the DRI interface fbo emit messages about framebuffers fs dump shader assembly for fragment shaders gs dump shader assembly for geometry shaders hex print instruction hex dump with the disassembly l3 emit messages about the new L3 state during transitions miptree emit messages about miptrees no8 don't generate SIMD8 fragment shader no16 suppress generation of 16-wide fragment shaders. useful for debugging broken shaders nocompact disable instruction compaction nodualobj suppress generation of dual-object geometry shader code nofc disable fast clears norbc disable single sampled render buffer compression optimizer dump shader assembly to files at each optimization pass and iteration that make progress perf emit messages about performance issues perfmon emit messages about AMD_performance_monitor pix emit messages about pixel operations prim emit messages about drawing primitives reemit mark all state dirty on each draw call sf emit messages about the strips & fans unit (for old gens, includes the SF program) shader_time record how much GPU time is spent in each shader spill_fs force spilling of all registers in the scalar backend (useful to debug spilling code) spill_vec4 force spilling of all registers in the vec4 backend (useful to debug spilling code) state emit messages about state flag tracking submit emit batchbuffer usage statistics sync after sending each batch, emit a message and wait for that batch to finish rendering tcs dump shader assembly for tessellation control shaders tes dump shader assembly for tessellation evaluation shaders tex emit messages about textures. urb emit messages about URB setup vert emit messages about vertex assembly vs dump shader assembly for vertex shaders

INTEL_SCALAR_VS (or TCS, TES, GS) force scalar/vec4 mode for a shader stage (Gen8-9 only) INTEL_PRECISE_TRIG if set to 1, true or yes, then the driver prefers accuracy over performance in trig functions. INTEL_SHADER_ASM_READ_PATH if set, determines the directory to be used for overriding shader assembly. The binaries with custom assembly should be placed in this folder and have a name formatted as sha1_of_assembly.bin. The sha1 of a shader assembly is printed when assembly is dumped via corresponding INTEL_DEBUG flag (e.g. vs for vertex shader). A binary could be generated from a dumped assembly by i965_asm. For INTEL_SHADER_ASM_READ_PATH to work it is necessary to enable dumping of corresponding shader stages via INTEL_DEBUG. It is advised to use nocompact flag of INTEL_DEBUG when dumping and overriding shader assemblies. The success of assembly override would be signified by "Successfully overrode shader with sha1 " in stderr replacing the original assembly. INTEL_BLACKHOLE_DEFAULT if set to 1, true or yes, then the OpenGL implementation will default GL_BLACKHOLE_RENDER_INTEL to true, thus disabling any rendering.

Radeon driver environment variables (radeon, r200, and r300g)

RADEON_NO_TCL if set, disable hardware-accelerated Transform/Clip/Lighting.

EGL environment variables

Mesa EGL supports different sets of environment variables. See the :doc:Mesa EGL <egl> page for the details.

Gallium environment variables

GALLIUM_HUD draws various information on the screen, like framerate, CPU load, driver statistics, performance counters, etc. Set GALLIUM_HUD=help and run e.g. glxgears for more info. GALLIUM_HUD_PERIOD sets the HUD update rate in seconds (float). Use zero to update every frame. The default period is 1/2 second. GALLIUM_HUD_VISIBLE control default visibility, defaults to true. GALLIUM_HUD_TOGGLE_SIGNAL toggle visibility via user specified signal. Especially useful to toggle HUD at specific points of application and disable for unencumbered viewing the rest of the time. For example, set GALLIUM_HUD_VISIBLE to false and GALLIUM_HUD_TOGGLE_SIGNAL to 10 (SIGUSR1). Use kill -10 <pid> to toggle the HUD as desired. GALLIUM_HUD_SCALE Scale HUD by an integer factor, for high DPI displays. Default is 1. GALLIUM_HUD_DUMP_DIR specifies a directory for writing the displayed HUD values into files. GALLIUM_DRIVER useful in combination with LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=true for choosing one of the software renderers softpipe, llvmpipe or swr. GALLIUM_LOG_FILE specifies a file for logging all errors, warnings, etc. rather than stderr. GALLIUM_PIPE_SEARCH_DIR specifies an alternate search directory for pipe-loader which overrides the compile-time path based on the install location. GALLIUM_PRINT_OPTIONS if non-zero, print all the Gallium environment variables which are used, and their current values. GALLIUM_DUMP_CPU if non-zero, print information about the CPU on start-up TGSI_PRINT_SANITY if set, do extra sanity checking on TGSI shaders and print any errors to stderr. DRAW_FSE ??? DRAW_NO_FSE ??? DRAW_USE_LLVM if set to zero, the draw module will not use LLVM to execute shaders, vertex fetch, etc. ST_DEBUG controls debug output from the Mesa/Gallium state tracker. Setting to tgsi, for example, will print all the TGSI shaders. See src/mesa/state_tracker/st_debug.c for other options.

Clover environment variables


``CLOVER_EXTRA_BUILD_OPTIONS``
   allows specifying additional compiler and linker options. Specified
   options are appended after the options set by the OpenCL program in
   ``clBuildProgram``.
``CLOVER_EXTRA_COMPILE_OPTIONS``
   allows specifying additional compiler options. Specified options are
   appended after the options set by the OpenCL program in
   ``clCompileProgram``.
``CLOVER_EXTRA_LINK_OPTIONS``
   allows specifying additional linker options. Specified options are
   appended after the options set by the OpenCL program in
   ``clLinkProgram``.

Softpipe driver environment variables

SOFTPIPE_DEBUG a comma-separated list of named flags, which do various things:

vs Dump vertex shader assembly to stderr fs Dump fragment shader assembly to stderr gs Dump geometry shader assembly to stderr cs Dump compute shader assembly to stderr no_rast rasterization is disabled. For profiling purposes. use_llvm the softpipe driver will try to use LLVM JIT for vertex shading processing. use_tgsi if set, the softpipe driver will ask to directly consume TGSI, instead of NIR.

LLVMpipe driver environment variables


``LP_NO_RAST``
   if set LLVMpipe will no-op rasterization
``LP_DEBUG``
   a comma-separated list of debug options is accepted. See the source
   code for details.
``LP_PERF``
   a comma-separated list of options to selectively no-op various parts
   of the driver. See the source code for details.
``LP_NUM_THREADS``
   an integer indicating how many threads to use for rendering. Zero
   turns off threading completely. The default value is the number of
   CPU cores present.

VMware SVGA driver environment variables

SVGA_FORCE_SWTNL force use of software vertex transformation SVGA_NO_SWTNL don't allow software vertex transformation fallbacks (will often result in incorrect rendering). SVGA_DEBUG for dumping shaders, constant buffers, etc. See the code for details. SVGA_EXTRA_LOGGING if set, enables extra logging to the vmware.log file, such as the OpenGL program's name and command line arguments. SVGA_NO_LOGGING if set, disables logging to the vmware.log file. This is useful when using Valgrind because it otherwise crashes when initializing the host log feature.

See the driver code for other, lesser-used variables.

WGL environment variables


``WGL_SWAP_INTERVAL``
   to set a swap interval, equivalent to calling
   ``wglSwapIntervalEXT()`` in an application. If this environment
   variable is set, application calls to ``wglSwapIntervalEXT()`` will
   have no effect.

VA-API environment variables

VAAPI_MPEG4_ENABLED enable MPEG4 for VA-API, disabled by default.

VC4 driver environment variables


``VC4_DEBUG``
   a comma-separated list of named flags, which do various things:

   ``cl``
      dump command list during creation
   ``qpu``
      dump generated QPU instructions
   ``qir``
      dump QPU IR during program compile
   ``nir``
      dump NIR during program compile
   ``tgsi``
      dump TGSI during program compile
   ``shaderdb``
      dump program compile information for shader-db analysis
   ``perf``
      print during performance-related events
   ``norast``
      skip actual hardware execution of commands
   ``always_flush``
      flush after each draw call
   ``always_sync``
      wait for finish after each flush
   ``dump``
      write a GPU command stream trace file (VC4 simulator only)

RADV driver environment variables

RADV_DEBUG a comma-separated list of named flags, which do various things:

llvm enable LLVM compiler backend allbos force all allocated buffers to be referenced in submissions checkir validate the LLVM IR before LLVM compiles the shader errors display more info about errors forcecompress Enables DCC,FMASK,CMASK,HTILE in situations where the driver supports it but normally does not deem it beneficial. hang enable GPU hangs detection and dump a report to $HOME/radv_dumps__ if a GPU hang is detected img Print image info info show GPU-related information invariantgeom Mark geometry-affecting outputs as invariant. This works around a common class of application bugs appearing as flickering. metashaders dump internal meta shaders nobinning disable primitive binning nocache disable shaders cache nocompute disable compute queue nodcc disable Delta Color Compression (DCC) on images nodisplaydcc disable Delta Color Compression (DCC) on displayable images nodynamicbounds do not check OOB access for dynamic descriptors nofastclears disable fast color/depthstencil clears nohiz disable HIZ for depthstencil images noibs disable directly recording command buffers in GPU-visible memory nomemorycache disable memory shaders cache nongg disable NGG for GFX10+ nooutoforder disable out-of-order rasterization notccompatcmask disable TC-compat CMASK for MSAA surfaces noumr disable UMR dumps during GPU hang detection (only with RADV_DEBUG=hang) novrsflatshading disable VRS for flat shading (only on GFX10.3+) preoptir dump LLVM IR before any optimizations shaders dump shaders shaderstats dump shader statistics spirv dump SPIR-V startup display info at startup syncshaders synchronize shaders after all draws/dispatches vmfaults check for VM memory faults via dmesg zerovram initialize all memory allocated in VRAM as zero

RADV_FORCE_FAMILY create a null device to compile shaders without a AMD GPU (e.g. vega10)

RADV_FORCE_VRS allow to force per-pipeline vertex VRS rates on GFX10.3+. This is only forced for pipelines that don't explicitely use VRS or flat shading. The supported values are 2x2, 1x2 and 2x1. Only for testing purposes.

RADV_PERFTEST a comma-separated list of named flags, which do various things:

bolist enable the global BO list cswave32 enable wave32 for compute shaders (GFX10+) dccmsaa enable DCC for MSAA images dccstores enable DCC for storage images (for performance testing on GFX10.3 only) dfsm enable DFSM gewave32 enable wave32 for vertex/tess/geometry shaders (GFX10+) localbos enable local BOs nosam disable optimizations that get enabled when all VRAM is CPU visible. pswave32 enable wave32 for pixel shaders (GFX10+) sam enable optimizations to move more driver internal objects to VRAM.

RADV_TEX_ANISO force anisotropy filter (up to 16) ACO_DEBUG a comma-separated list of named flags, which do various things:

validateir validate the ACO IR at various points of compilation (enabled by default for debug/debugoptimized builds) validatera validate register assignment of ACO IR and catches many RA bugs perfwarn abort on some suboptimal code generation force-waitcnt force emitting waitcnt states if there is something to wait for novn disable value numbering noopt disable various optimizations noscheduling disable instructions scheduling perfinfo print information used to calculate some pipeline statistics liveinfo print liveness and register demand information before scheduling

radeonsi driver environment variables


``AMD_DEBUG``
   a comma-separated list of named flags, which do various things:

   ``nodcc``
      Disable DCC.
   ``nodccclear``
      Disable DCC fast clear.
   ``nodccfb``
      Disable separate DCC on the main framebuffer
   ``nodccmsaa``
      Disable DCC for MSAA
   ``nodpbb``
      Disable DPBB.
   ``nodfsm``
      Disable DFSM.
   ``notiling``
      Disable tiling
   ``nofmask``
      Disable MSAA compression
   ``nohyperz``
      Disable Hyper-Z
   ``no2d``
      Disable 2D tiling
   ``info``
      Print driver information
   ``tex``
      Print texture info
   ``compute``
      Print compute info
   ``vm``
      Print virtual addresses when creating resources
   ``vs``
      Print vertex shaders
   ``ps``
      Print pixel shaders
   ``gs``
      Print geometry shaders
   ``tcs``
      Print tessellation control shaders
   ``tes``
      Print tessellation evaluation shaders
   ``cs``
      Print compute shaders
   ``noir``
      Don't print the LLVM IR
   ``nonir``
      Don't print NIR when printing shaders
   ``noasm``
      Don't print disassembled shaders
   ``preoptir``
      Print the LLVM IR before initial optimizations
   ``gisel``
      Enable LLVM global instruction selector.
   ``w32ge``
      Use Wave32 for vertex, tessellation, and geometry shaders.
   ``w32ps``
      Use Wave32 for pixel shaders.
   ``w32cs``
      Use Wave32 for computes shaders.
   ``w64ge``
      Use Wave64 for vertex, tessellation, and geometry shaders.
   ``w64ps``
      Use Wave64 for pixel shaders.
   ``w64cs``
      Use Wave64 for computes shaders.
   ``checkir``
      Enable additional sanity checks on shader IR
   ``mono``
      Use old-style monolithic shaders compiled on demand
   ``nooptvariant``
      Disable compiling optimized shader variants.
   ``nowc``
      Disable GTT write combining
   ``check_vm``
      Check VM faults and dump debug info.
   ``reserve_vmid``
      Force VMID reservation per context.
   ``nogfx``
      Disable graphics. Only multimedia compute paths can be used.
   ``nongg``
      Disable NGG and use the legacy pipeline.
   ``nggc``
      Always use NGG culling even when it can hurt.
   ``nonggc``
      Disable NGG culling.
   ``alwayspd``
      Always enable the primitive discard compute shader.
   ``pd``
      Enable the primitive discard compute shader for large draw calls.
   ``nopd``
      Disable the primitive discard compute shader.
   ``switch_on_eop``
      Program WD/IA to switch on end-of-packet.
   ``nooutoforder``
      Disable out-of-order rasterization
   ``dpbb``
      Enable DPBB.
   ``dfsm``
      Enable DFSM.

r600 driver environment variables

R600_DEBUG a comma-separated list of named flags, which do various things:

nocpdma Disable CP DMA nosb Disable sb backend for graphics shaders sbcl Enable sb backend for compute shaders sbdry Don't use optimized bytecode (just print the dumps) sbstat Print optimization statistics for shaders sbdump Print IR dumps after some optimization passes sbnofallback Abort on errors instead of fallback sbdisasm Use sb disassembler for shader dumps sbsafemath Disable unsafe math optimizations nirsb Enable NIR with SB optimizer tex Print texture info nir Enable experimental NIR shaders compute Print compute info vm Print virtual addresses when creating resources info Print driver information fs Print fetch shaders vs Print vertex shaders gs Print geometry shaders ps Print pixel shaders cs Print compute shaders tcs Print tessellation control shaders tes Print tessellation evaluation shaders noir Don't print the LLVM IR notgsi Don't print the TGSI noasm Don't print disassembled shaders preoptir Print the LLVM IR before initial optimizations checkir Enable additional sanity checks on shader IR nooptvariant Disable compiling optimized shader variants. testdma Invoke SDMA tests and exit. testvmfaultcp Invoke a CP VM fault test and exit. testvmfaultsdma Invoke a SDMA VM fault test and exit. testvmfaultshader Invoke a shader VM fault test and exit. nodma Disable asynchronous DMA nohyperz Disable Hyper-Z noinvalrange Disable handling of INVALIDATE_RANGE map flags no2d Disable 2D tiling notiling Disable tiling switch_on_eop Program WD/IA to switch on end-of-packet. forcedma Use asynchronous DMA for all operations when possible. precompile Compile one shader variant at shader creation. nowc Disable GTT write combining check_vm Check VM faults and dump debug info. unsafemath Enable unsafe math shader optimizations

R600_DEBUG_COMPUTE if set to true, various compute-related debug information will be printed to stderr. Defaults to false. R600_DUMP_SHADERS if set to true, NIR shaders will be printed to stderr. Defaults to false. R600_HYPERZ If set to false, disables HyperZ optimizations. Defaults to true. R600_NIR_DEBUG a comma-separated list of named flags, which do various things:

instr Log all consumed nir instructions ir Log created R600 IR cc Log R600 IR to assembly code creation noerr Don't log shader conversion errors si Log shader info (non-zero values) reg Log register allocation and lookup io Log shader in and output ass Log IR to assembly conversion flow Log control flow instructions merge Log register merge operations nomerge Skip register merge step tex Log texture ops trans Log generic translation messages

Other Gallium drivers have their own environment variables. These may change frequently so the source code should be consulted for details.