Kodo first looks for an optional kodo.xml resource. Kodo searches for this resource in each top-level directory of your CLASSPATH. Kodo will also find the resource if you place it within a META-INF directory in any top-level directory of the CLASSPATH. The kodo.xml resource contains property settings in JPA's XML format.

If Kodo discovers a kodo.xml resource, specification-dependent settings default to JPA values.

If Kodo does not find a kodo.xml resource, it turns to JDO. Kodo JDO searches for an optional kodo.properties resource. Place this resource in any top-level directory of the CLASSPATH, or within a META-INF directory in any top-level directory of the CLASSPATH. If found, this resource is parsed as a standard Java properties file.

If Kodo discovers a kodo.properties resource, specification-dependent settings default to JDO values.

You can customize the name or location of the above resource by specifying the correct resource path in the kodo.properties System property.

You can override any value defined in the above resource by setting the System property of the same name to the desired value.

In JPA, the values in the standard META-INF/persistence.xml bootstrapping file used by the Persistence class at runtime override the values in the above resource, as well as any System property settings. The Map passed to Persistence.createEntityManagerFactory at runtime also overrides previous settings, including properties defined in persistence.xml.

In JDO, the values in the Properties object passed to JDOHelper.getPersistenceManagerFactory at runtime override the values in the above resource, as well as any System property settings.

When using JCA deployment the config-property values in your ra.xml file override other settings.

All Kodo command-line tools accept flags that allow you to specify the configuration resource to use, and to override any property. Section 2.4, “Command Line Configuration” describes these flags.