[Bf-committers] relocatable blender on linux

[Campbell Barton]

GSR wrote:
> Hi,
> cbarton at metavr.com (2007-07-22 at 0721.38 +1000):
>> GSR wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>> cbarton at metavr.com (2007-07-22 at 0128.04 +1000):
>>>> At the moment blender on linux always points to ~/.blender/
>>> Notice that it also points to ~/.B.blend and other files in ~/. There
>>> is no unified dir and some other data is not truly compatible (quick
>>> example is .B.blend). IMHO one of the first things to do would be to
>>> unify all conf inside a dir and clean up the hidden issue (hidden
>>> files inside it, does anybody has a good explanation?).
>> Im not against relocating .B.blend etc but I think its a separate issue, 
>> and no reason to do it first.
> 
> OTOH, I think it is pretty much related to the issue, as you want to
> know what binary is really running to do things accordingly. It is not
> a small issue, it needs to cover the issues of multiuser, portability
> and versioning, to just mention the three that quickly come to mind,
> instead of go with no plan and change and back step when issues pupop,
> even if they were there from start.
> 
> Sometimes the data is compatible, sometimes not. Aside from ~/.B.blend
> (already problematic, even if just when you want to run a really old
> version), there are ~/.Bfs, ~/.Blog and ~/.Bfont, and inside $config
> there are things like locale/ or scripts/ which have problems with
> different releases. Currently things get spill over or duplicated in
> ~/, ~/.blender/ and $package/.blender/ (and $package/plugins/, but
> those are just source, even if they could be provided ready to run).
> 
> For example, what to do if you have no write access to
> $package/$config/bpydata/ because $package was unpacked by other user?
> Or is system wide install (no write access and maybe even path is
> unrelated to $binary)? Or what policy is taken for locale/?
> 
> The issue is not just relocating some inside, it is also relocating
> things outside as needed and figure what is version dependant and what
> not (and handling what was not but at some point became). In
> conclusion, it is cleaning the problems for once, not just for
> scripts/.
> 
> GSR

IMHO all data can be relocated (as it works in windows)

on initialization there can be a 'use_home_dir' bool thats set based on 
looking at the files where the blender binary is, if they dont exist 
then use the home dir.


A rework of where ~/.Bfs, ~/.Blog and ~/.Bfont are stored is ok but Id 
prefer to do this incrementally/

We can make sure binary relocate ability works on all platforms as a 
first step,
then re-arrange the files as a second.

Of course its fine if somebody wants do go and write proposals for a new 
way of working and implement it all in one go, but I think thats less 
likely to be completed since it includes a fair bit of OS specific 
functionality from BSD, Solaris irix etc.