diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index ccd851fd..d98c749b 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -200,7 +200,7 @@ and then theres the tabs below it,
 * `[ng]` is the uploads which failed / got rejected (already exists, ...)
 * `[done]` shows a combined list of `[ok]` and `[ng]`, chronological order
 * `[busy]` files which are currently hashing, pending-upload, or uploading
-  * plus up to 3 entries from `[done]` and `[que]` for context
+  * plus up to 3 entries each from `[done]` and `[que]` for context
 * `[que]` is all the files that are still queued
 
 ### file-search
@@ -367,7 +367,8 @@ copyparty returns a truncated sha512sum of your PUT/POST as base64; you can gene
 quick outline of the up2k protocol, see [uploading](#uploading) for the web-client
 * the up2k client splits a file into an "optimal" number of chunks
   * 1 MiB each, unless that becomes more than 256 chunks
-  * tries 1.5, 2, 3, 4, 6, ... until <= 256 or chunksize >= 32M
+  * tries 1.5M, 2M, 3, 4, 6, ... until <= 256# or chunksize >= 32M
+* client posts the list of hashes, filename, size, last-modified
 * server creates the `wark`, an identifier for this upload
   * `sha512( salt + filesize + chunk_hashes )`
   * and a sparse file is created for the chunks to drop into
@@ -393,7 +394,7 @@ quick outline of the up2k protocol, see [uploading](#uploading) for the web-clie
 
 some bundled tools have copyleft dependencies, see [./bin/#mtag](bin/#mtag)
 
-these are standalone and will never be imported / evaluated by copyparty
+these are standalone programs and will never be imported / evaluated by copyparty
 
 
 # sfx
diff --git a/copyparty/authsrv.py b/copyparty/authsrv.py
index 29546de7..14dcb531 100644
--- a/copyparty/authsrv.py
+++ b/copyparty/authsrv.py
@@ -241,6 +241,7 @@ class AuthSrv(object):
         self.args = args
         self.log_func = log_func
         self.warn_anonwrite = warn_anonwrite
+        self.line_ctr = 0
 
         if WINDOWS:
             self.re_vol = re.compile(r"^([a-zA-Z]:[\\/][^:]*|[^:]*):([^:]*):(.*)$")
@@ -266,7 +267,9 @@ class AuthSrv(object):
     def _parse_config_file(self, fd, user, mread, mwrite, mflags, mount):
         vol_src = None
         vol_dst = None
+        self.line_ctr = 0
         for ln in [x.decode("utf-8").strip() for x in fd]:
+            self.line_ctr += 1
             if not ln and vol_src is not None:
                 vol_src = None
                 vol_dst = None
@@ -296,7 +299,12 @@ class AuthSrv(object):
                 mflags[vol_dst] = {}
                 continue
 
-            lvl, uname = ln.split(" ")
+            if len(ln) > 1:
+                lvl, uname = ln.split(" ")
+            else:
+                lvl = ln
+                uname = "*"
+
             self._read_vol_str(
                 lvl, uname, mread[vol_dst], mwrite[vol_dst], mflags[vol_dst]
             )
@@ -374,7 +382,12 @@ class AuthSrv(object):
         if self.args.c:
             for cfg_fn in self.args.c:
                 with open(cfg_fn, "rb") as f:
-                    self._parse_config_file(f, user, mread, mwrite, mflags, mount)
+                    try:
+                        self._parse_config_file(f, user, mread, mwrite, mflags, mount)
+                    except:
+                        m = "\n\033[1;31m\nerror in config file {} on line {}:\n\033[0m"
+                        print(m.format(cfg_fn, self.line_ctr))
+                        raise
 
         if not mount:
             # -h says our defaults are CWD at root and read/write for everyone