Value Formats

This page explains how dmd parses values.

Use it when you need to know:

what shape a CLI flag expects
what shape dmd profile add --set key=value accepts
what you can write by hand in a profile inside config.json
how profile commands normalize stored values

Time Deltas

Time deltas are used by:

--keep-within
--fetch-within
profile fields keep_within and fetch_within

For cleanup runs, these values are relative durations measured backwards from the time the command runs. For example, --keep-within 2w means “keep items newer than two weeks before this run starts”, and --fetch-within 1d6h means “fetch items newer than 30 hours before this run starts”.

There are two supported styles.

Key/value style

weeks=2,days=3,hours=1

Rules:

units must be unique
negative values are not allowed
unit names use full words: weeks, days, hours, minutes, seconds

Common examples:

weeks=1
days=14
hours=12,minutes=30

Compact suffix style

2w3d4h5m6s

Supported suffixes:

Suffix	Meaning
`w`	weeks
`d`	days
`h`	hours
`m`	minutes
`s`	seconds

Common examples:

1w
14d
12h30m
2w3d

Both 0 and 0.0 are treated as zero duration.

Booleans

CLI boolean flags use normal flag syntax:

--dry-run
--no-dry-run
--preserve-cache
--no-preserve-cache

Profile --set values and hand-written profile config entries accept:

true
false

When profile commands rewrite the profile, booleans are stored as JSON booleans:

{
  "dry_run": true
}

Nullable Values

Some CLI options can be reset to unlimited/no value:

dmd clean --profile nightly-dms --fetch-within none
dmd clean --profile nightly-dms --max-messages none

For profile updates, none is an operation:

dmd profile update nightly-dms --set fetch_within=none
dmd profile update nightly-dms --set max_messages=none

That removes the stored field from the profile.

Do not store null in profile config. If a profile should not set a value, omit the field.

String Lists

String lists are used by profile fields such as:

include_ids
exclude_ids

Profile --set accepts:

--set include_ids=123,456
--set include_ids="123 456"
--set include_ids='["123","456"]'

For include_ids and exclude_ids, values may be full Discord IDs or unique ID suffixes when set through dmd profile add or dmd profile update. Profile commands resolve them through Discord before writing config, and store full IDs.

Hand-written profile config accepts the same list shapes:

{
  "include_ids": ["123", "456"]
}

When profile commands rewrite the profile, string lists are stored as JSON arrays.

Number Ranges

Number ranges are used by:

retry_time_buffer
fetch_sleep_time
delete_sleep_time

They accept one or two numbers.

Profile --set accepts:

--set retry_time_buffer=25
--set retry_time_buffer=25,35
--set retry_time_buffer="25 35"
--set retry_time_buffer='[25,35]'

Hand-written profile config accepts the same input shapes.

When profile commands rewrite the profile, number ranges are stored as JSON arrays:

{
  "retry_time_buffer": [25.0, 35.0]
}

Redaction Values

The normal CLI flag uses space-separated values:

--redact-sensitive
--redact-sensitive 4
--redact-sensitive 0 4
--redact-sensitive 4 4
-r 4

Profile --set and hand-written profile config accept:

--set redact_sensitive=true
--set redact_sensitive=false
--set redact_sensitive=4
--set redact_sensitive=0,4
--set redact_sensitive="0 4"
--set redact_sensitive='[0,4]'
--set redact_names=false

When profile commands rewrite the profile:

true and false are stored as JSON booleans
suffix-only windows are stored as one-item JSON arrays, for example [4]
prefix/suffix windows are stored as two-item JSON arrays, for example [0, 4]

Profile Config Normalization

Profile config has two concepts:

accepted input shape: what the parser accepts
stored shape: what dmd profile add and dmd profile update write back

The parser is intentionally flexible for hand-written config, but profile commands prefer canonical JSON.

Normalization rules:

time deltas are validated and kept as the string you provided, for example "2w" or "days=3"
lists and ranges are normalized to JSON arrays, for example "123,456" becomes ["123", "456"]
booleans and integers are normalized to JSON booleans and numbers
none is only a profile-update operation, not a stored config value
null is not supported in profiles

Prefer the canonical JSON shape when editing config by hand.