If, for some reason, you want to spread your PLUMED input over a number of files you can use INCLUDE as shown below:
INCLUDE FILEcompulsory keyword file to be included =filename
So, for example, a single "plumed.dat" file:
dist: DISTANCE ATOMSthe pair of atom that we are calculating the distance between. =1,2 RESTRAINT ARGthe input for this action is the scalar output from one or more other actions. =dist ATcompulsory keyword the position of the restraint =2.0 KAPPAcompulsory keyword ( default=0.0 ) specifies that the restraint is harmonic and what the values of the force constants on each of the variables are =1.0
could be split up into two files as shown below:
dist: DISTANCE ATOMSthe pair of atom that we are calculating the distance between. =1,2 INCLUDE FILEcompulsory keyword file to be included =toBeIncluded.inc
plus a "toBeIncluded.inc" file
#SETTINGS FILENAME=toBeIncluded.inc # this is toBeIncluded.inc RESTRAINT ARGthe input for this action is the scalar output from one or more other actions. =dist ATcompulsory keyword the position of the restraint =2.0 KAPPAcompulsory keyword ( default=0.0 ) specifies that the restraint is harmonic and what the values of the force constants on each of the variables are =1.0
However, when you do this it is important to recognize that INCLUDE is a real directive that is only resolved after all the Comments have been stripped and the Continuation lines have been unrolled. This means it is not possible to do things like:
# this is wrong: DISTANCE INCLUDE could not find this keyword FILE could not find this keyword =options.dat RESTRAINT ARGthe input for this action is the scalar output from one or more other actions. =dist ATcompulsory keyword the position of the restraint =2.0 KAPPAcompulsory keyword ( default=0.0 ) specifies that the restraint is harmonic and what the values of the force constants on each of the variables are =1.0