### 2.1 Starting Polipo

By default, Polipo runs as a normal foreground job in a terminal in which it can log random “How do you do?” messages. With the right configuration options, Polipo can run as a daemon.

Polipo is run with the following command line:

         $ polipo [ -h ] [ -v ] [ -x ] [ -c config ] [ var=val... ]

All flags are optional. The flag `-h` causes Polipo to print a short help message and to quit. The flag `-v` causes Polipo to list all of its configuration variables and quit. The flag `-x` causes Polipo to purge its on-disk cache and then quit (see Purging). The flag `-c` specifies the configuration file to use (by default `~/.polipo` or `/etc/polipo/config`). Finally, Polipo's configuration can be changed on the command line by assigning values to given configuration variables.