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The World of Warcraft game client stores all of its configurations in the so-called console variables (CVars). These variables affect many aspects of the game, such as the graphics engine, the interface, and the sound system.

There are several ways of setting the configuration variables:

Config.wtf - The World of Warcraft directory contains a Config.wtf file in the WTF folder, which provides settings mostly relevant to game startup, such as gxResolution for the screen resolution to use and locale for the language.
/console command - Settings can be changed in-game using the /console command, which uses the same syntax as the file Config.wtf described above. Any modifications done using this command will be saved to this file.
Wow In-game User Interface - Wow's ingame interface - Hit Esc to get to it
WoW.exe -Console - This will allow you to call the debug console ingame by pressing ~.
SetCVar API command - for changing settings using addons

The syntax for the first two ways of changing a variable is:

SET variableName "value"

Manually changing a CVar may permanently override the settings made on the in-game configuration menu. For example, having cameraDistanceMax set in the file Config.wtf renders the "Max Camera Distance" slider useless. You will have to quit the game and manually remove the CVar line from the file.

List of CVars

This is a categorized list of console variables, along with a short explanation for each CVar.

The list is not complete; for a complete list, see Console variables/Complete list.

Startup

These are general variables that are only relevant for starting the game (or which are only read during startup).

accountList - Saves multiple account names for login screen

accountName - Saves 1 account name for login screen

accounttype - Saves what account type the user is playing on - Wow, BC, LK or CT

checkAddonVersion - Disable loading of out-of-date addons

CinematicJoystick

coresDetected - # of CPU cores detected

decorateAccountName -

expansionMovie - Display Cataclysm intro at startup (This variable is reset to 0 after the video has been shown)

forceEnglishNames -

installType - Retail/Beta/PTR

lastCharacterIndex - Number of last character that was used for logging in (initial selection for character screen)

locale - Game language code (e.g. "enGB", "enUS", "deDE", "frFR" ...)

heapAllocTracking - Enables/disables allocation tracking & dumping in SMemMalloc

heapUsage -

heapUsage2 -

movie - Display intro movie at startup (doesn't work in Burning Crusade game client)

movieSubtitle - Display subtitles for intro movies

readContest - Whether the user has accepted the PTR contest rules

readEULA - Whether the user has accepted the EULA

readScanning - Whether the user has accepted the system scanning terms

readTOS - Whether the user has accepted the Terms of Use

realmList - Realm list server to use (e.g. "eu.logon.worldofwarcraft.com" or "us.logon.worldofwarcraft.com")

realmListbn - Battle.net realm list server to use (default: "") - wow still uses realmList

realmName - Name of most recently used realm (displayed in the lower right corner)

showToolsUI - Enable the WoW Launcher

timingMethod - Sets the CPU timing method used. 0 is none, 1 is normal precision(fps limited to 64), 2 is high precision

patchlist - Address of wow patch server

processAffinityMask - Which processor core to start WoW on

Console

These are commands that only affect the drop down menu

help - Displays help and information for any command. (Eg. Help debug)

fontcolor - Console Font Color

bgcolor - Backdrop color

highlightcolor - Console text highlight color

fontsize - Font Size

font - Name of Font to use in console

consolelines - How many lines to display on screen at once

clear - clears all console text

proportionaltext - Spaces text out to cover the entire screen (E x a m p l e !)

spacing - specifies inter-character spacing, in pixels

settings - lists current console settings

default - returns console to default settings

closeconsole - closes console

repeat - repeats a command when entered

cvarlist - lists all cvars with their current & default settings

cvar_default - sets all cvars to their defaults

cvar_reset - resets config.wtf file to the settings you use when you log in for the first time

Camera

Note: This list is NOT complete due to the increasing number of cvars for this category. See Console_variables/Complete_list/Character for the full list of camera settings.

cameraBobbing

cameraBobbingFrequency

cameraBobbingLRAmplitude

cameraBobbingSmoothSpeed

cameraBobbingUDAmplitude

cameraCustomViewSmoothing

cameraDistance - Fixed value?

cameraDistanceD - Camera distance (zoom). May or may not show forced camera movements from camera-world collisions (untested).

cameraDistanceMax

cameraDistanceMaxFactor - Sets factor by which cameraDistanceMax is multiplied

cameraDistanceMoveSpeed - Default is 8.33.

cameraDistanceSmoothSpeed - Default is 8.33. Values range from 0.002778-50. Changes speed at which you scroll-wheel zoom in/out.