# What templates can be used in the Kernel Configuration window?

This is the Kernel Configuration dialog from Evaluation → Kernel Configuration Options...

Under "Arguments to MLOpen" we can use several templates of the form name, which will be expanded by the front end to a certain value. For example, mathkernel will be expanded to the absolute path to the kernel executable of the current installation.

What are the templates that we can use and what do they expand to?

Additionally, what kind of escaping and quoting can be used in this box?

By experimentation, the templates listed below seem to be supported in the Arguments to MLOpen and Launch command boxes. For each template, a sample expansion is shown as produced by Mathematica 11 under OS X on my machine.

## Templates for Directories

• baseDirectory expands to /Library/Mathematica
• homeDirectory expands to /Users/sakra
• installDirectory expands to /Applications/Mathematica.app/Contents
• jlinkDirectory expands to /Applications/Mathematica.app/Contents/SystemFiles/Links/JLink
• userbaseDirectory expands to /Users/sakra/Library/Mathematica
• userdocumentsDirectory expands to /Users/sakra/Documents

## Templates for Files

• executable expands to wolfram
• java expands to /Applications/Mathematica.app/Contents/SystemFiles/Java/MacOSX-x86-64/bin/java
• javaw expands to /Applications/Mathematica.app/Contents/SystemFiles/Java/MacOSX-x86-64/bin/java
• jlinkjar expands to /Applications/Mathematica.app/Contents/SystemFiles/Links/JLink/JLink.jar
• mathkernel expands to /Applications/Mathematica.app/Contents/MacOS/WolframKernel
• mathssh expands to /Applications/Mathematica.app/Contents/SystemFiles/Java/WolframSSH.jar
• wolframkernel expands to /Applications/Mathematica.app/Contents/MacOS/WolframKernel
• wolframssh expands to /Applications/Mathematica.app/Contents/SystemFiles/Java/WolframSSH.jar

## Templates for Environment

• ipaddress expands to 192.168.1.11
• machinename expands to host.example.com
• username expands to sakra

## Templates for WSTP

The expansion of the following templates depends on the WSTP link actually created by the options entered in the Arguments to MLOpen box.

### Templates for a TCPIP WSTP link

• linkname expands to 54656@192.168.1.11,54657@192.168.1.11
• dataport expands to 54656@192.168.1.11
• messageport expands to 54657@192.168.1.11
• socketname expands to 54656

### Templates for a SharedMemory WSTP link

• linkname expands to dr6hn_shm
• dataport expands to dr6hn_shm
• messageport expands to empty string
• socketname expands to dr6hn_shm

## Quoting

Under OS X and Linux both single quotes and double quotes can be used for quoting arguments in the expected way.

Under Windows the launch command is passed to cmd.exe in the following way:

C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe /c "launch command"


That means that the quoting rules for cmd.exe /c apply, i.e. double quotes work as expected.