Re: System variable HOME

["Procházka Lukáš Ing. - Pontex s. r. o." <LPr@pontex.cz>]

Hello,

I can answer just the first point -

On Mon, 05 Nov 2012 00:15:17 +0100, Sietse Brouwer <sbbrouwer@gmail.com> wrote:

> Lukáš wrote:
>> it seems that Ctx [re]defines the system variable HOME on its run
>
> Did some digging, and indeed it does. This is what happens, if I read
> the code correctly (lines 11681-11696 of context/bin/mtxrun):
> * `homedir` is read from the environment variable USERPROFILE on
> Windows, and from HOME on Linux.
> * both USERPROFILE and HOME (and environment.homedir) are then set to
> the value of `homedir`.
>
> Questions this raises:
>
> (1) Windows does not seem to use HOME

That's true, that's why I decided to use a variable of this name.

> (it's not in any of the lists of
> environment variables that I found), only HOMEDRIVE and HOMEPATH, so
> what do you use it for?

That's true, too.

The HOMEPATH variable points to "c:/Document and Settings/blablabla" - I didn't want to change this variable to "my" value "d:/Lukas" as many programs may suppose location "c:/Document and Settings" and don't need to use "%HOMEPATH%" when they want to obtain the directory of user settings/data.

So, if possible (= when I CAN AFFECT some program behavior; like Ctx, gnuplot and other command-line oriented programs) I'm using "my" variable HOME.

Also, I redirected "My Documents" folder (under Windows) to "d:/Lukas".

Surprisingly, when you do this redirection (via "My Documents" properties - "Change Location" or similar button), "My Documents" location is changed but HOMEPATH variable keeps its default settings, "c:/Documents and Settings/...".

So the state of user documents folder is a bit "schizophrenic" from this moment as "My Documets" are redirected to "d:/Lukas" whilst HOMEPATH points to "c:/Documents and Settings/...".

As "My Documents" location is not detectable from the command line (supposing you don't use a tool which reads a key in the registry which contains the value of "My Documents" location), I defined (on all computers, notebooks etc. I'm working with) a new system [local] variable "HOME" which points to the same dir as "My Documents" and which was not in use by Windows.

There was no name HOME collision problem so far - so I choose this name.

Best regards,

Lukas


-- 
Ing. Lukáš Procházka [mailto:LPr@pontex.cz]
Pontex s. r. o.      [mailto:pontex@pontex.cz] [http://www.pontex.cz]
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