--- a/src/main/java/org/monetdb/client/JdbcClient.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/monetdb/client/JdbcClient.java
@@ -190,6 +190,13 @@ public final class JdbcClient {
 				"statements read.  Batching can greatly speedup the " +
 				"process of restoring a database dump.");
 
+//	This  file can contain defaults for the flags user, password, language,
+//	database, save_history, format, host, port, and width.  For example, an
+
+		copts.addIgnored("save_history");
+		copts.addIgnored("format");
+		copts.addIgnored("width");
+
 		// we store user and password in separate variables in order to
 		// be able to properly act on them like forgetting the password
 		// from the user's file if the user supplies a username on the
@@ -325,11 +332,9 @@ public final class JdbcClient {
 			// make sure the driver class is loaded (and thus register itself with the DriverManager)
 			Class.forName("org.monetdb.jdbc.MonetDriver");
 
-			con = DriverManager.getConnection(
-					"jdbc:monetdb://" + host + "/" + database + attr,
-					user,
-					pass
-			);
+			String url = "jdbc:monetdb://" + host + "/" + database + attr;
+			System.err.println(url);
+			con = DriverManager.getConnection(url, user, pass);
 			SQLWarning warn = con.getWarnings();
 			while (warn != null) {
 				System.err.println("Connection warning: " + warn.getMessage());

--- a/src/main/java/org/monetdb/util/CmdLineOpts.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/monetdb/util/CmdLineOpts.java
@@ -10,11 +10,13 @@ package org.monetdb.util;
 
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.HashMap;
+import java.util.HashSet;
 import java.util.Properties;
 
 public final class CmdLineOpts {
 	/** the arguments we handle */
 	private HashMap<String, OptionContainer> opts = new HashMap<String, OptionContainer>();
+	private final HashSet<String> ignoredInFile = new HashSet<>();
 	/** the options themself */
 	private ArrayList<OptionContainer> options = new ArrayList<OptionContainer>();
 
@@ -53,6 +55,10 @@ public final class CmdLineOpts {
 			opts.put(longa, oc);
 	}
 
+	public void addIgnored(String name) {
+		ignoredInFile.add(name);
+	}
+
 	public void removeOption(final String name) {
 		final OptionContainer oc = opts.get(name);
 		if (oc != null) {
@@ -88,10 +94,11 @@ public final class CmdLineOpts {
 				if (option != null) {
 					option.resetArguments();
 					option.addArgument(prop.getProperty(key));
-				} else
+				} else if (!ignoredInFile.contains(key)) {
 					// ignore unknown options (it used to throw an OptionsException)
-					System.out.println("Info: Ignoring unknown/unsupported option (in " + file.getAbsolutePath() + "): " + key);
-			}
+                    System.out.println("Info: Ignoring unknown/unsupported option (in " + file.getAbsolutePath() + "): " + key);
+                }
+            }
 		} catch (java.io.IOException e) {
 			throw new OptionsException("File IO Exception: " + e);
 		}