UCI wrapper?

[KLc]

I want to start a UCI engine with parameters set to certain values, e.g. read from a "profile file". I don't want to leave this to a GUI. The reason is that I'm using several different systems and it's annoying integrating all the options again and again and again. Is there anything like that? Maybe one could pipe options on start via a bash script? I could also imagine writing a Python wrapper for this but I would like to save some time. Anyone any ideas? I'm on macOS/Linux.

[Ras]

One of the reasons why UCI took off back then was the INI file hell that Winboard engines suffered from. The usual use case is that the user has one system and several engines, and then it's pretty bad to fudge around with all of them.

[KLc]

Sure, but I mean this scenario certainly exists, just think of fixing an engine state for research and verifiability. I could definitely write a Python wrapper using python-chess but it will take a few days of work. So, I'm wondering whether anyone has done this already or has another—maybe simpler—solution.

[OfekShochat]

I write an mcts python-c chess engine. so I have written a uci wrapper for it. there are parameters like a book, network type and more. I can give you the code or if you want to I can modify it for you. its in python. and a bash or batch code is really a thing of a day of work. (or you can make the script run the python one)

[Ras]

just think of fixing an engine state for research and verifiability.

I'm using c-chess-cli for engine testing, so no GUI at all. I write up the program call including the engine config (via CLI arguments) one time, store that in a text file, and copy/paste it into the terminal as command. Works under Linux and macOS: https://github.com/lucasart/c-chess-cli/

[OfekShochat]

just think of fixing an engine state for research and verifiability.

I'm using c-chess-cli for engine testing, so no GUI at all. I write up the program call including the engine config (via CLI arguments) one time, store that in a text file, and copy/paste it into the terminal as command. Works under Linux and macOS: https://github.com/lucasart/c-chess-cli/

oh cutechess-cli is a good idea! and with unix-like system its also easy to setup. not like windows

[Ras]

oh cutechess-cli is a good idea!

Yeah, cutechess-cli is also popular, though I like c-chess-cli because it doesn't have dependencies.

and with unix-like system its also easy to setup. not like windows

Exactly. Both cutechess-cli and c-chess-cli wrap the engine options and forward them to the engine.

[hgm]

I want to start a UCI engine with parameters set to certain values, e.g. read from a "profile file". I don't want to leave this to a GUI. The reason is that I'm using several different systems and it's annoying integrating all the options again and again and again. Is there anything like that? Maybe one could pipe options on start via a bash script? I could also imagine writing a Python wrapper for this but I would like to save some time. Anyone any ideas? I'm on macOS/Linux.

Isn't this exactly what Polyglot does? When called without arguments it would read the engine filename, and the settings for all te parameters from a polyglot.ini file in the current directory, and start the engine with those parameters.

[KLc]

Thanks for the replies. I had a look at cutechess-cli and c-chess-cli. They basically do what I want but they require two engines and are designed to start a match. That's not what I want. I just want one engine and this should wait for input—like if I would just start the engine from the command line.

I'm not sure about Polyglot. This is an xboard/winboard wrapper to UCI if I understand correctly. But I already have UCI engines. I just want to conveniently supply them with the options.

[hgm]

Polyglot is a wrapper for UCI engines, which can either make them look like an XBoard engine or a UCI engine with altered default settings and an opening book.