Chapter 3. Configuration
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# Chapter 3. Configuration

## The Configuration File

MPD reads its configuration from a text file. Usually, that is `/etc/mpd.conf`, unless a different path is specified on the command line. If you run MPD as a user daemon (and not as a system daemon), the configuration is read from `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/mpd/mpd.conf` (usually `~/.config/mpd/mpd.conf`).

Each line in the configuration file contains a setting name and its value, e.g.:

    connection_timeout "5"

For settings which specify a filesystem path, the tilde is expanded:

    music_directory "~/Music"

Some of the settings are grouped in blocks with curly braces, e.g. per-plugin settings:

    audio_output {
        type "alsa"
        name "My ALSA output"
        device "iec958:CARD=Intel,DEV=0"
        mixer_control "PCM"
    }

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