[Bf-committers] Setting a default system scripts directory

[Brecht Van Lommel]

Hi Campbell,

I agree with the proposal basically. The folder ~/.blender should be
the place for the user to configure & add things, while
$PREFIX/share/blender or ./.blender should be used for files that come
with it.

One thing I'm not sure about is how to deal with different versions.
My preference is to use /usr/local/share/blender/2.5 over
/usr/local/share/blender-2.5, but that's a detail.

Do we use a version number inside ~/.blender? I may be useful to let
Blender look into ~/.blender/2.5 and then ~/.blender. This way you
could install scripts for particular versions, but not necessarily
worry about it if you don't want to.

Further, I think we should move .B.blend, .Bfs and .Blog into
~/.blender. I think Ton wanted to split up .B.blend into parts also,
it may be better to avoid writing too many files in the home directory
and keep them together in a folder.

On other operating systems we should also do a similar separation
between user config and application, using whatever folder is
appropriate. Not that I expect you to implement it, but may be nice to
write the functions in such a way that other operating systems can
plug in different paths.

Brecht.

On 9/19/09, Campbell Barton <ideasman42 at gmail.com> wrote:
> No reply but I thought over this a little more and have a proposal for
>  blender to better fit in with linux package management.
>  This closely matches The Gimp, which allows system python scripts and
>  user ones to coexist.
>
>  Proposal in point form :)
>  * ~/.blender stays working, existing configurations wont need to change.
>  * An optional new DIR is defined for UNIX systems (not win/mac), for
>  brevity will call it SYS-PATH
>  * This dir could be named as follows $PREFIX/share/blender-$VERSION --
>  Eg.  /usr/local/share/blender-2.5
>  * When the SYS-PATH directory is found it will be used as the primary
>  directory for scripts, language files, icons etc. (Otherwise
>  ~/.blender will be used like it is now)
>  * Scrips scan SYS-PATH first (if exists) then ~/.blender, other data
>  files only use one path (SYS-PATH and fall-back to ~/.blender)
>  ...In most cases using data from both dirs at once is not needed, (you
>  could conceivably want to access icon themes from ~/.blender &
>  SYS-PATH, but don't think its so important)
>  However, scripts are an exception, On a typical linux package you'd
>  have blender install all data files into /usr/share/blender-2.5 and
>  then when users want to add their own scripts they can copy into
>  /home/user/.blender/scripts.
>
>
>  Outcome...
>  * improves out-of-box experience for users by not treating built-in
>  files (eg, most of blender2.5s interface) as user settings/data.
>  * Less trouble to package blender (no scripts copying data to
>  ~/.blender on startup).
>  * Keep support for existing "local" installs where blender can run
>  without being installed.
>  * Packages will install all blender data in /usr/share/blender-2.5.x,
>  casual users will not create a ~/.blender, however ~/.B.blend will
>  still be saved into their home dir.
>  * Existing users who build and run blender dont need to change their
>  configuration.
>  * Package managers upgrading blender will remove system scripts and
>  replace with new ones, ~/.blender (if exists) is untouched.
>
>  Details...
>  * Use a compile time option, like ./configure --prefix="/usr/local"
>  * $BLENDERPATH used like $PYTHONPATH, allow for non hard-coded
>  SYS-PATH (Better for re-distribution where users dont install into
>  /usr/share/.... etc. and don't copy scripts into ~/.blender). Typical
>  usage this would not need setting.
>  * Can implement this as opt-in to initially, later can review making it default.
>  * Will add an "install" target for cmake and scons.
>
>
>  - Campbell
>
>
>  On Sat, Sep 12, 2009 at 10:54 PM, Campbell Barton <ideasman42 at gmail.com> wrote:
>  > Hi, this is an old problem for linux/unix packages and Id like to
>  > solve this too... some things to think about.
>  >
>  > Should this be limited to scripts? - Might it be better to have the
>  > whole ~/.blender path scanned elsewhere (would include icons, language
>  > files, .bfont.ttf), otherwise packages still have to have some way to
>  > have blender find language files in a place other then the home
>  > folder.
>  >
>  > I'd propose one of 4 solutions, some of which have been suggested
>  > above, and on other occasions.
>  > 1) Do nothing
>  > - People packaging blender can have the ".blender" directory installed
>  > in some directory such as "/usr/share/blender", and use a shell
>  > wrapper script that copies these files into the home directory on
>  > startup if it doesn't exist.
>  > - One of the problems with this is when blender is upgraded, the users
>  > home holder wont be, unless the startup shell script detects versions.
>  > - If this becomes the recommended method we must have some way to
>  > support updates. maybe copy to ~/.blender-2.5 (gimp has versions like
>  > this)
>  >
>  > 2) System wide data files (as well as ~/.blender)
>  > - This boils down to having blender look in a fixed path for data
>  > files (including scripts)
>  > - This directory will be used if ~/.blender is not found (which is the
>  > case mostly for freshly installed packages), works much nicer for
>  > updating packages too since users wont have stale copies.
>  > - At compile time set a prefix (like /usr/share/blender/2_49b),
>  > similar to --prefix="/usr", often use with ./configure; make; make
>  > install autoconf setups.
>  > - PROBLEM, both /usr/share/blender AND /home/User/.blender cant both
>  > be used at the same time (wont go into details but think this is a
>  > recipe for disaster).
>  >
>  > 3) Environment variable or argument eg. $BLENDER_DATA
>  > have an environment variable (or command line argument) $BLENDER_DATA
>  > thats overrides $HOME (when set).
>  > - This allows for most flexibility, package startup scripts can point
>  > to whatever location they like, check its there, etc.
>  > - It would need to save .B.blend and .Blog in $HOME and look for data
>  > files in $BLENDER_DATA
>  > - Still doesn't solve system + user scripts.
>  >
>  > 4) Only solve for scripts
>  > Have an env var / argument that scans another path for scripts when
>  > set. I dont like this much because it only solves one problem but if
>  > we did this, the scripts could at least co-exist by scanning both the
>  > system and user scripts.
>  >
>  > -----
>  >
>  > Personally Id go for 2 or 3, If we go for 3 (an env variable), Id like
>  > to include a startup shell script that makes use of this in a way we'd
>  > recommend packagers follow so they don't all go and do their own
>  > thing.
>  >
>  > This isn't especially hard, if we agree on one I can look into adding
>  > it for 2.49c or 2.5x
>  >
>  > On Sat, Sep 12, 2009 at 8:35 PM,  <michael at obberon.com> wrote:
>  >> On Saturday 12 September 2009 20:10:09 Roger Wickes wrote:
>  >>> curious - which one of those is your user setting in the folder user
>  >>>  preferences tab? Secondly, that list does not seem to include the
>  >>>  bpymodules folder??
>  >>
>  >> I did not change the user setting, so I believe that it is the default,
>  >> ~/.blender. The reason the list turned out the way it did was because on my
>  >> system, ~/.blender did not exist, so it fell back to /usr/bin/.blender, and
>  >> then finally /usr/bin/release/scripts (in case the user ran the executable
>  >> from the source directory). With the directory created, blender does check
>  >> the ~/.blender/scripts directory, along with
>  >> ~/.blender/scripts/bpymodules, but does not bother checking anything in
>  >> /usr/bin.
>  >>
>  >> However, this is not the point I was trying to make. There still should be
>  >> a way to specify a system directory that should also be checked.
>  >> --
>  >> Michael Forney <michael at obberon.com>
>  >>
>  >> _______________________________________________
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>  >>
>  >
>  >
>  >
>  > --
>  > - Campbell
>  >
>
>
>
>  --
>  - Campbell
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