[Solved] Config regenerating upon the removal of "<" ">"

Hey everyone,
A user was having problems with my plugin, it would genereate a new config everytime he removed "<" and ">" from the line. NOTE He had to remove both of them, not just one.

Code:

MINECRAFT: <{groupPrefix}{prefix}{name}{suffix}{groupSuffix}>{colon} {message}
          ^                                                ^

Here is how the config is loaded:

Code:

    public void load() {
        final FileConfiguration config = this.plugin.getConfig();
        final File CONFIGURATION_FILE = new File(Constants.SETTINGS_PATH
                + File.separator + Constants.SETTINGS_FILE);
        boolean exists = CONFIGURATION_FILE.exists();
        log("Loading settings.yml file");
        if (exists) {
            try {
                log("Loading settings!");
                config.options()
                        .header("MonsterIRC's configs - Refer to \"http://dev.bukkit.org/server-mods/monsterirc/pages/settings/\" for help");
                config.options().copyDefaults(true);
                config.load(CONFIGURATION_FILE.getAbsolutePath());
            } catch (Exception e) {
                debug(e);
            }
        } else {
            log("Loading default settings!");
            config.options()
                    .header("MonsterIRC's configs - Refer to \"http://dev.bukkit.org/server-mods/monsterirc/pages/settings/\" for help");
            config.options().copyDefaults(true);
        }
        try {
            Variables.ident = config.getBoolean("IRC.SETTINGS.IDENTIFY",
                    Variables.ident);
            Variables.name = config.getString("IRC.SETTINGS.NICKNAME",
                    Variables.name);
            Variables.password = config.getString("IRC.SETTINGS.PASSWORD",
                    Variables.password);
            Variables.server = config.getString("IRC.SETTINGS.SERVER",
                    Variables.server);
            Variables.port = config.getInt("IRC.SETTINGS.PORT", Variables.port);
            Variables.limit = config.getInt(
                    "IRC.OPTIONS.MESSAGE_LIMIT_PER_SEC", Variables.limit);
            Variables.timeout = config.getInt("IRC.OPTIONS.TIMEOUT",
                    Variables.timeout);
            Variables.tries = config.getInt("IRC.OPTIONS.RETRYS",
                    Variables.tries);
            Variables.debug = config.getBoolean("IRC.OPTIONS.DEBUG",
                    Variables.debug);
            Variables.passOnName = config.getBoolean(
                    "IRC.OPTIONS.PASS_ON_NAME", Variables.passOnName);
            Variables.colors = config.getBoolean("IRC.OPTIONS.ALLOW_COLORS",
                    Variables.colors);
            Variables.joinAndQuit = config.getBoolean(
                    "IRC.OPTIONS.SHOW_JOIN_AND_LEAVE_MESSAGES",
                    Variables.joinAndQuit);
            Variables.ingamecommands = config.getBoolean(
                    "IRC.ADMIN.INGAME_COMMANDS", Variables.ingamecommands);
            Variables.commandPrefix = config
                    .getString("IRC.ADMIN.INGAME_COMMANDS_PREFIX",
                            Variables.commandPrefix);
            Variables.mcformat = config.getString("IRC.FORMAT.MINECRAFT",
                    Variables.mcformat);
            Variables.ircformat = config.getString("IRC.FORMAT.IRC",
                    Variables.ircformat);
            Variables.muted = config.getStringList("IRC.MUTED");
            save(config, CONFIGURATION_FILE);
        } catch (Exception e) {
            debug(e);
        }
        String defaultFormat = "<{groupPrefix}{prefix}{name}{suffix}{groupSuffix}>{colon} {message}";
        if (Variables.mcformat.contains("{name}")
                && Variables.mcformat.contains("{message}")) {
        } else {
            debug("Invalid Minecraft format detected!");
            Variables.mcformat = defaultFormat;
        }
        if (Variables.ircformat.contains("{name}")
                && Variables.ircformat.contains("{message}")) {
        } else {
            debug("Invalid IRC format detected!");
            Variables.ircformat = defaultFormat;
        }
        if (Variables.name.contains("default")) {
            firstRun = true;
        }
    }

Here is the config.yml that is packed in the jar:

Code:

IRC:
  SETTINGS:
    IDENTIFY: false
    NICKNAME: default
    PASSWORD: default
    SERVER: irc.esper.net
    PORT: 6667
  OPTIONS:
    MESSAGE_LIMIT_PER_SEC: 2
    TIMEOUT: 2000
    RETRYS: 5
    DEBUG: false
    PASS_ON_NAME: false
    ALLOW_COLORS: true
    SHOW_JOIN_AND_LEAVE_MESSAGES: true
  ADMIN:
    INGAME_COMMANDS: false
    INGAME_COMMANDS_PREFIX: .
  FORMAT:
    MINECRAFT: <{groupPrefix}{prefix}{name}{suffix}{groupSuffix}>{colon} {message}
    IRC: <{groupPrefix}{prefix}{name}{suffix}{groupSuffix}>{colon} {message}
  MUTED:
  - sampleuser

If you have any Ideas why, feel free to reply! Thanks

 

That's because '{' is a special character in YAML. The string has to be put in quotes: "{groupPrefix}{prefix}{name}{suffix}{groupSuffix}{colon} {message}"

 

Ahh, that would explain it, thanks