Before the Console Client can start searching for a Zend_Tool configuration file or a local storage directory, it must first be able to identify where the "home directory" is located.

On *nix-based machines, PHP will be populated with an environment variable named HOME with a path to the current users home directory. Typically, this path will be very similar to /home/myusername.

On Windows-based machines, PHP will typically be populated with an environment variable named HOMEPATH with the current users home directory. This directory is usually found in either C:\Documents and Settings\Username\, or in Vista at C:\Users\Username.

If either a home directory cannot be found, or you wish to change the location of where Zend_Tool_Framework Console Client finds the home directory, you can provide an environment variable named ZF_HOME to specify where to find the home directory.

Once a home directory can be located, Zend_Tool_Framework's Console Client can either autodiscover the local storage directory, or it can be told where to expect the local storage directory.

Assuming the home directory has been found (here noted as $HOME), the Console Client will then look for the local storage directory in $HOME/.zf/. If found, it will set the local storage directory to this location.

If the directory cannot be found, or the developer wishes to override this location, that can be done by setting an environment variable. Regardless if $HOME has been previously set or not, the developer may supply the environment variable ZF_STORAGE_DIR.

Once the path to a local storage directory is found, the directory must exist for it to be passed into the Zend_Tool_Framework runtime, as it will not be created for you.

Like local storage, once a home directory can be located, Zend_Tool_Framework's Console Client can then either attempt to autodiscover the path to a configuration file, or it can be told specifically where to find the configuration file.

Assuming the home directory has been found (here noted as $HOME), the Console Client will then attempt to look for the existence of a configuration file located at $HOME/.zf.ini. This file, if found, will be used as the configuration file for Zend_Tool_Framework.

If that location does not exist, but a local storage directory does, then the Console Client will then attempt to locate the configuration file within the local storage directory. Assuming the local storage directory exists in $LOCAL_STORAGE, then if a file exists as $LOCAL_STORAGE/zf.ini, it will be found by the Console Client and utilized as the Zend_Tool_Framework configuration file.

If the file cannot be autodiscovered or the developer wishes to specify the location of location of the configuration file, the developer can do so by setting an environment variable. If the environment variable ZF_CONFIG_FILE is set, then its value will be used as the location of the configuration file to use with the Console Client. The ZF_CONFIG_FILE can point to any Zend_Config readable INI, XML or PHP File.

If the file does not exist in either the autodiscovered or the provided location, it will not be used as Zend_Tool_Framework does not attempt to create the file automatically.

The configuration file should be structured as a Zend_Config configuration file, in INI format, and without any sections being defined. First level keys should be used by the provider searching for a specific value. For example, if the "Project" provider is expecting a "profiles" directory, then it should typically be understood that it will search for the following INI key value pair:

The only reserved INI prefix is the value "php". The "php" prefix to values will be reserved to store names and values of runtime settable PHP values, such as include_path or error_reporting. To override the include_path and error_reporting with an INI value, a developer would set: