kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Wayne Stambaugh <stambaughw@xxxxxxxxx>]

This also doesn't help user with environment variables set in their
config files.  Installing kicad in a different folder will not resolve
this issue.  We have the rather posix like method of setting
XDG_USER_CONFIG variable to point to a different user config path but
that isn't really windows friendly.  That would require some coding to
match the install version with version specific config folders on windows.

On 7/16/2018 10:22 AM, Rene Pöschl wrote:
> This only helps users who never had system environment variables set.
> They overwrite the settings coming from the config folders. (So all
> default windows installation are not helped with this.)
> 
> On 16/07/18 16:16, Nick Østergaard wrote:
>> Why does this need to be so complicated?
>>
>> I think we could just rename the kicad config folder created and
>> searched by kicad from "kicad" to "kicad5" and be happy in the 5.x
>> branches.
>> Den man. 16. jul. 2018 kl. 15.11 skrev Bob Gustafson <bobgus@xxxxxxx>:
>>> There is a tool which allows developers to quickly switch between
>>> different versions of Ruby (and their associated gemsets).
>>>
>>> Perhaps it could be used for KiCad? Or perhaps just some of RVM's
>>> ideas could be adapted for KiCad
>>>
>>> https://rvm.io/
>>>
>>>
>>> On 07/15/2018 09:52 AM, Adam Wolf wrote:
>>>
>>> I guess the fact that environment variables are tricky to set for
>>> graphical applications for the Mac may be a blessing here :)
>>>
>>> Should we try to package a macOS version that installs to
>>> /Applications/KiCad5 and /Library/Application Support/kicad?
>>>
>>> Adam
>>>
>>> On Sun, Jul 15, 2018, 2:41 AM Eeli Kaikkonen
>>> <eeli.kaikkonen@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>> There are some people in the user forum who have spent time with
>>>> these v4->v5 problems, including me and Rene. The consensus about
>>>> the environment variables seems to be what Rene already said, that
>>>> they should not (without explicit user intervention) be set for the
>>>> system, but from KiCad itself. Nick confirmed that the current v5
>>>> installer won't set them by default. They are still a problem if
>>>> they have been set by v4 installer.
>>>>
>>>> su 15. heinäk. 2018 klo 5.04 Strontium (strntydog@xxxxxxxxx) kirjoitti:
>>>>> I honestly think each major revision of KiCad should be considered
>>>>> a NEW
>>>>> program, installs to a new place has its configuration and
>>>>> libraries all
>>>>> in a new location.  Only Incremental updates 5.0 -> 5.1 should be
>>>>> considered upgrades.
>>>>>
>>>> I agree. It's probable that many users will want to continue with v4
>>>> for old projects but v5 for new, and in the future the same thing
>>>> will be true for v5 vs. v6, because they break the file/project
>>>> compatibility. But where the compatibility is kept it's more likely
>>>> to be considered as just an upgrade.
>>>>
>>>>> Kicad configuration isn't complex or onerous so if a user wants to
>>>>> bring
>>>>> a Kicad4 config into Kicad5 or 6 or whatever, then they do that
>>>>> themselves, otherwise after install Kicad5 is a fresh blank sheet with
>>>>> no relationship to anything that happened on the users computer in
>>>>> Kicad4.  I am not familiar with the issues on Windows, but I would
>>>>> have
>>>>> thought now this is mostly a packaging issue only??
>>>>>
>>>> I tried modifying the Windows installer, I only needed to replace
>>>> some of "KiCad" strings with "KiCad5" and it can install v5
>>>> alongside v4 independently. The only problem is the configuration
>>>> and the environment variables set by v4. They can be handled with a
>>>> startup script. See
>>>> https://forum.kicad.info/t/does-v5-have-to-overwrite-on-install/11282 for
>>>> some details.
>>>>
>>>>> I also agree if it can't work this way now on Windows, then its all a
>>>>> bit late for V5, but maybe V6 can consider itself a new program
>>>>> distinct
>>>>> from V5.  This would also help with testing, because users could
>>>>> use V5
>>>>> for daily work, but also easily install a V6 daily side by side.
>>>>
>>>> All this could be done with the Windows installer, provided that a
>>>> startup script would be offered.
>>>>
>>>> To make this all, at least the startup script, as simple as possible
>>>> I would suggest one (or three) small changes to KiCad (for 5.1, or
>>>> even 5.0.1?). Add command line options --config=/path/to/config and
>>>> --ignore-env-vars. The former is obvious and would override
>>>> KICAD_CONFIG_HOME system environment variable. The latter would make
>>>> KiCad ignore all system environment variables and use the current
>>>> internal logic and the path settings UI instead. That way the old
>>>> variables could be left for v4 and the newer versions would be
>>>> completely independent if the command line switches were used. The
>>>> command line switch for the config path would be mostly for
>>>> convenience. In Windows starting a program with custom environment
>>>> variables is tedious and error prone to write (see the above
>>>> mentioned thread). Command line switches are much easier.
>>>>
>>>> It could also be possible to make --ignore-env-vars=true by default.
>>>> Sharing the environment variables would be a special case if the
>>>> user wants that.
>>>>
>>>> The general problem with using system environment variables is that
>>>> they are good for situations when there's only one version of a
>>>> program on the system, and/or several processes share the same
>>>> variable values. Neither of them is true for parallel installations
>>>> of KiCad.
>>>>
>>>> Eeli Kaikkonen
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>>>
>>>
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> 
> 
> 
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