# Resources

ChordPro makes use of resources, usually small files that contain information like images or fonts.

All resources can be accessed using either a full filename or a short filename.

An example of a full filename resource for a font is "/usr/share/fonts/liberation-sans/LiberationSans-Regular.ttf". A resource specified with a full filename will always be used as such.

When a resource is needed and it is not specified with a full filename, ChordPro will search for it using a different strategies depending on the resource.

The first strategy is to look next to the song being processed. If for example you are processing song file blues/ballad.cho and this song requires resource alert.svg, ChordPro will try blues/alert.svg.

The second strategy is to perform a search for the resource in a number of places, often referred to as resource libraries.

The list of resource libraries is constructed as follows.

• The directories specified as a colon-separated (semi-colon on Windows systems) list in the CHORDPRO_LIB environment setting.

• The platform dependent user specific resource library.
  On Linux systems there is an environment variable HOME that is usually something like /home/username. On Windows this may be something like C:\Users\username or C:\Documents and Settings\username. The home directory is conventionally specified with a tilde, ~. If the user’s home directory contains a subdirectory .config/chordpro this will be added to the resource libraries.

• The ChordPro resource library that comes with the ChordPro installation.

Running chordpro --about and the ChordPro GUI ‘About’ information will show what libraries and locations will be used.

# Configuration resources (presets)

Preset configurations are searched for only in the resource libraries.

# Tasks

Tasks are available in the GUI only.

Tasks are just like config files but they are also presented in the GUI ‘Tasks’ menu.

Tasks are searched for in all resource libraries that have a tasks folder.

The tasks are shown under a neatified form of the file that contains the task. For example, a task file Blue_Chords.prp will be shown as Blue Chords. You can change the title with a specially formatted first line in the file:
// chordpro task: desired title (for JSON files), and
# chordpro task: desired title (for property files).

# Images

Images are searched for next to the song being processed, and, if not found, in all resource libraries that have an images folder.

# Fonts

First, the font is looked up in all the directories specified in the config setting fontdir.

If not found, it is searched for in all resource libraries that have a fonts folder.

Finally, a left-over from early implementations, is the location of a directory specified in the environment variable FONTDIR.

# Includes

Note: This applies to the experimental ##include feature and is not related to config "include".

Includes are searched for next to the song being processed, and, if not found, in all resource libraries that have an include folder.