bazaar.conf - decisions: for Windows

[John A Meinel]

Alexander Belchenko wrote:
> David Allouche wrote:
>> On Mon, 2005-10-10 at 23:14 -0400, Kevin Smith wrote:
>>
>>>John A Meinel wrote:
>>>
>>>>>Robert Collins wrote:
>>>>>
>
>>>>> Since this isn't an absolute path, what is it relative to? Your home
>>>>> directory? On windows, you don't really have the same concept (I
>>>>> know I
>>>>> usually work in H:/dev/...
>>>>> Though my $HOME would be C:/Documents and Settings/jameinel/
>>>
>>>
>>> Under MS Windows, Java maps the user home directory to the user's "My
>>> Documents" directory, which tends to work pretty well.
>
>
> I don't think this is good idea.
>
>> I have played a bit with Wine this week-end, and it appears that the
>> home directory is defined on win32 by a registry key.
>>
>> Something like "Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Explorer\
>> \User Shell Folders\\Personal".
>
>
> No. It pointed to current "My Documents" folder but not to user home
> directory.
>
>> I'm a win32 illiterate, so you should definitely wait for confirmation
>> from somebody who knows what he's talking about, but I thought a heads
>> up would be useful.
>
>
> If bzr developers wish to use "My Documents" folder as home directory
> for Windows it must be deliberate decision and it should be mentioned in
> README for Windows users. Usually "My Documents" not used as place to
> store application-specific data, though it can be useful because of
> simply access to this folder for dummy users. Is bzr users will be so
> dummy so they cannot find "C:\Documents and Settings\username\"
> directory by hand or with FAR/Total Commander? I think -- not. But I'm
> not truth in the ultimate authority.

I think there are 2 pieces here. First, the location of where bzr puts
its control files. And I think that should be:
$APPDATA/bazaar/2.0/bazaar.conf
sort of a thing. The above would expand to:
C:/Documents and Settings/jameinel/Application Data/bazaar/2.0/bazaar.conf

However, in the config file, there is discussion of how you mention
branches by location. So you can supply:

[~/dev/bzr/bzr.dev]
signatures=require

So where should ~ be expanded to? I think python will expand it to:
C:/Documents and Settings/jameinel

Except in windows, you have USERDIR, and you have HOME. Many times if
you connect to a windows domain, they will set your HOME to a network
drive, python might expand it to that if it is available. I haven't
looked at the entire bug thread.

Because windows is as messy as it is, without a clear definition of what
"~" should be, I think we shouldn't worry about it. And just advise
people working on windows to always supply a complete path.

Yes, it means that if they are working under "My Documents" the complete
path becomes:
[C:/Documents and Settings/John A Meinel/My Documents/bazaar stuff/bzr.dev]

(I expanded my name, because that is what WinXP will use by default).
I think it is long and ugly, and that:
[~/bazaar stuff/bzr.dev]

Is much nicer, but you might be able to do
[~/My Documents/bazaar stuff/bzr.dev]

Which isn't so bad.

John
=:->

>
> There is BUG report in Python BUG Tracker, posted in 2003 by GvR:
> http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=796219&group_id=5470&atid=105470
>
>
> There is patch for this bug #957650:
> http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=957650&group_id=5470&atid=305470
>
>
> But this patch not merged into mainline python distribution.
>
> I use ideas from this patch in my bzrlib/winutils.py module for
> determining user's home directory (see my recent patches for Windows).
>
> BTW, here is stat from my working and home computer:
>
> * GIMP use "C:\Documents and Settings\username\.gimp-2.2\" directory for
> storing their data;
> * All serious native windows application store their data in
> "C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\" (per example,
> Adobe Acrobat, Mozilla Firefox & Thunderbird). But this directory is
> marked as hidden, so it is not intended for manual use, so it is *bad*
> idea to put .bazaar.conf here;
> * All python programs that have been ported from *nix to windows and use
> ~/.*conf path sometimes place their stuff in C:\* dirctory. It rely on
> current definition of $HOME, $HOMEDRIVE, $HOMEDIR environment variables,
> and sometimes it s wrong decision. It is *wrong*, but at least idle,
> boa-constructor, ipython, (and at this moment bzr.dev) does that.
>
> I think it will be a good idea to create special utility that will help
> to Windows users change options and settings for bzr via GUI interface
> (as most typical windows way). I also think this utility may have
> ability to install and uninstall plugins for bzr in appropriate
> directory. This utility should "know" by itself where must be
> .bazaar.conf placed without user intervention.
>
> Alexander.
>
>
>

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