Configure Settings Using a Configuration File

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Configuration File Format

Configuration File Location
Configurable Settings
Behavior with config API

You can specify mongosh settings in a global configuration file. When you specify settings in a configuration file, those settings are applied at startup. After you create a configuration file, the settings in the file take effect the next time you start mongosh.

Configuration File Format

The mongosh configuration file uses the YAML format. All options are under the mongosh namespace.

Example Configuration File

The following configuration file sets:

displayBatchSize to 50
inspectDepth to 20
redactHistory to remove-redact

mongosh:
  displayBatchSize: 50
  inspectDepth: 20
  redactHistory: "remove-redact"

Configuration File Location

The file location where mongosh looks for the configuration file depends on your operating system:

Operating System	File Location
Windows	`mongosh.cfg`, in the same directory as the `mongosh.exe` binary.
macOS	`mongosh` looks for a configuration file in the following directories in the order they are listed: `/usr/local/etc/mongosh.conf` `/opt/homebrew/etc/mongosh.conf` `/etc/mongosh.conf` Once `mongosh` reads a configuration file in one of these directories, any remaining directories in the list are not checked and configuration files in those directories are ignored.
Linux	`/etc/mongosh.conf`

Configurable Settings

You can specify the following mongosh settings in your configuration file:

Key	Type	Default	Description
`disableLogging`	boolean	`false`	Specifies whether MongoDB Shell writes log entries.
`displayBatchSize`	integer	20	The number of items displayed per cursor iteration
`enableTelemetry`	boolean	`true`	Enables sending anonymized tracking and diagnostic data to MongoDB.
`editor`	string	`null`	Designates an editor to use within the `mongosh` console. Overrides the `EDITOR` environment variable if set.
`forceDisableTelemetry`	boolean	`false`	Only available in the global configuration file. When true, users cannot enable telemetry manually.
`historyLength`	integer	1000	The number of items to store in `mongosh` REPL's history file.
`inspectCompact`	integer or boolean	3	The level of inner elements that `mongosh` outputs on a single line. Short array elements are also grouped together on a single line. If set to `false`, `mongosh` outputs each field on its own line.
`inspectDepth`	integer or Infinity	6	The depth to which objects are printed. Setting `inspectDepth` to `Infinity` (the javascript object) prints all nested objects to their full depth.
`logCompressionEnabled`	boolean	false	Specifies whether MongoDB Shell compresses log files. When this value is `true`, MongoDB Shell uses gzip to compress logs. See Enable Log Compression.
`logLocation`	string	Depends on your operating system. See View Shell Logs.	Directory where MongoDB Shell writes log files. Specify an absolute filepath. See Specify Log File Location.
`logMaxFileCount`	integer or Infinity	100	Maximum number of log files that the MongoDB Shell retains. After the MongoDB Shell reaches the maximum log file count, it starts deleting the oldest log files until the count is below the threshold. See Modify Maximum Log File Count.
`logRetentionDays`	integer or Infinity	30	Number of days that MongoDB Shell log files are retained. If this value is set to `Infinity`, log files are not deleted based on age. To prevent log storage from growing too large, always specify at least one log retention criterion. See Log Retention.
`logRetentionGB`	float or Infinity	Unset	Maximum amount of space in gigabytes used for MongoDB Shell logs. If the combined size of MongoDB Shell logs exceeds this value, log files are deleted starting with the oldest logs. If this value is set to `Infinity`, log files are not deleted based on storage size. To prevent log storage from growing too large, always specify at least one log retention criterion. See Log Retention.
`redactHistory`	string	`remove`	Controls what information is recorded in the shell history. Must be one of: `keep`: Retain all history. `remove`: Remove lines which contain sensitive information. `remove-redact`: Redact sensitive information.
`showStackTraces`	boolean	`false`	Controls display of a stack trace along with error messages.
`snippetAutoload`	boolean	`true`	If `true`, automatically load installed snippets at startup.
`snippetIndexSourceURLs`	string	MongoDB Repository	A semicolon-separated list of URLs that link to a snippet registry.
`snippetRegistryURL`	string	npm Registry	The npm registry used by the `mongosh` npm client that installs snippet.

Behavior with `config` API

Settings specified with the config API:

Override settings specified in the configuration file.
Persist across restarts.

Example

Consider the following configuration file that sets the inspectDepth setting to 20:

mongosh:
  inspectDepth: 20

During your mongosh session you run the following command to set inspectDepth to 10:

config.set( "inspectDepth", 10 )

The value of inspectDepth becomes 10, and will remain 10 even when mongosh is restarted.

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