The environment variable POVINI is used to specify the location and name of a default INI file that is read every time POV-Ray is executed. If POVINI is not specified, or if your computer platform does not use environment variables, a default INI file may be read. If the specified file does not exist, a warning message is printed.
To set the environment variable under MS-DOS you might put the following line in your autoexec.bat file...
set POVINI=c:\povray3\default.ini
On most operating systems the sequence of reading options is as follows:
1. Read options from default INI file specified by the POVINI environment variable or platform specific INI file.
2. Read switches from command line (this includes reading any specified INI/DEF files).
The POVRAYOPT environment variable supported by previous POV-Ray versions is no longer available.