### 4.9 Preferences Commands

These commands allow you to set your preferences, that is, the value of a series of flags that modify the behaviour of `ne`. (Some of the flag commands, like the command for the indent flag, appear in other sections.) The status of the flags can be saved and restored later either by writing them out to a file (saved as a macro that suitably sets the flags) or by pushing them onto a “preferences stack”. The back search and the read only flags are not saved, because they do not represent a preference, but rather a temporary state. The escape time and the turbo parameter are global to `ne`, and are not saved. However, you can add manually to a preferences file any preferences command (such as `EscapeTime` or `Turbo`); usually, this will be done to the default preferences file `~/.ne/.default#ap`.

Note that there is an automatic preferences system, which automagically loads a preferences file related to the extension of the file name. Automatic preferences files are kept in your `~/.ne` directory. They are named as an extension postfixed with ‘`#ap`’. Each time you open a file whose name has an extension for which there is an automatic preferences file, the latter is executed. If you want to inhibit this process, you can clear the automatic preferences flag. See AutoPrefs.