# Configuration

igraph includes customization options that can be set via the `configuration.Configuration` object and can be preserved via a configuration file. This file is stored at `~/.igraphrc` by default on Linux and Mac OS X systems, and at `C:\Documents and Settings\username\.igraphrc` on Windows systems.

To modify config options and store the result to file for future reuse:

    import igraph as ig

    # Set configuration variables
    ig.config["plotting.backend"] = "matplotlib"
    ig.config["plotting.palette"] = "rainbow"

    # Save configuration to default file location
    ig.config.save()

Once your configuration file exists, igraph will load its contents automatically upon import.

It is possible to keep multiple configuration files in nonstandard locations by passing an argument to `config.save`, e.g. `ig.config.save("/path/to/config/file")`. To load a specific config the next time you import igraph, use:

    import igraph as ig
    ig.config.load("/path/to/config/file")