There are only three runtime flags, and their meaning is the following:
-r | -w: This flags allow to configure the daemon in reader or writer mode. In reader mode a client connection is assigned to one backend connection. In writer mode a client connection is assigned to all backends at once, thus providing a replication of the client commands across all the backends. As we'll see later, the -r configuration is used in Connection Pool and Load Balancer modes, and -w in Replicator mode. The default is reader mode.
-d: The presence of this flag means debug mode. The daemon will output thru stderr a lot of information about its internal processes. As a consecuence of this, the performance will also suffer somewhat. Right now the amount of debug info isn't configurable, but maybe in a future it will be. It's deactivated by default.
-f: This flag tells the daemon to use a particular configuration file. Starting with version 0.3.0, the XML config file is abandoned and substituted by a plain text one. This also removes the Xerces library requirement, easing a lot the installation. The meaning of each configuration item hasn't changed from the meaning they had with the XML file.