Starting an image from SqueakConsole manipulates pwd

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On 12/06/20 7:24 pm, Thiede, Christoph wrote:
> I just rechecked this under Ubuntu. Same issue here. Do you agree
> that it is a bug that the pwd is changed when starting the VM?

On all platforms, the default directory is the current directory, but
FileDirectory>>startUp is setting the default directory to that of the
image instead of current directory. The attached fix will cure the fault.

If this works, I will post a patch to Inbox tomorrow.

Regards .. Subbu

On 12/06/20 11:33 pm, K K Subbu wrote:
> On 12/06/20 7:24 pm, Thiede, Christoph wrote:
>> I just rechecked this under Ubuntu. Same issue here. Do you agree
>> that it is a bug that the pwd is changed when starting the VM?
>
> On all platforms, the default directory is the current directory, but
> FileDirectory>>startUp is setting the default directory to that of the
> image instead of current directory. The attached fix will cure the fault.
>
> If this works, I will post a patch to Inbox tomorrow.

It won't work :-(. FileDirectory>>startUp calls setDefaultDirectory with
imagePath. When I tried to change this to '.', FileDirectory>>on:
changes it to '/.' :-(.

On unix, pathnames can begin with '.', '..' or '/' with the first one
being the default, if a file does not begin with any one of these
prefixes. These names are late bound.

FileDirectory>>splitName:to: is also broken. It returns an empty string
for '/' (instead of '/') or '/foo' ('.'). A directory name can never be
empty. '/' '.' '..' have to be treated specially. If a path has no
delimiter than the directory is '.'. Also, the basename of '/' is '/'
not empty.

I tried fixing this method, but the image crashed (couldn't find sources
file). Directory is being checked for empty string in multiple places.

Does anyone have the context around these changes? Haalp!

Regards .. Subbu

Ah, the joy of trying to do sensible things cross-platform for file names.

A point to add is that not all OS necessarily make any use of a 'current directory' - RISC OS for example does strictly speaking have a legacy idea of it but generally it was ignored for anything to do with desktop applications. I *think* early Mac OS (up to OS X probably) had the same view. After all, if you run squeak by double-clicking on an image file in a filer window, what is the meaning of CWD?

Most likely we settled on directory of the image file' as a good proxy since it was actually discoverable from information we already had on startup. It's a pain when using things like any of the all-in-ones of course.

In cases where we start a system via some form of script we might do some work and pass the desired home directory via DTLs nice new -doit option, which could allow the all-in-one scripts to set it to something more sensible than /Users/tim/Documents/Squeak/Squeak-5.0-All-in-One.app/Contents/Resources/ when /Users/tim/Documents/Squeak would seem more plausibly useful.

And as for the mess that can occur when playing with filenames ... yeah. I've tried to make it better in the past (like probably 1998 was the last time I got up enough enthusiasm to be thrown into that briar patch) but it really needs a complete rethink, rewrite and replacement. We have had, in deep history, long threads about how to tackle this, with ideas about checking for file properties (problem: they can change in the backgrouund due to other processes), file name rules (can vary file by file according to the filesystem mounted - is it FAT, FAT32, NTFS, ext4, zfs, ftp, adfs?), and on and on.

IIRC their *was* a big push for this that resulted in 'FilePath' or something remotely like that in name? Beuller? Anyone?

tim
--
tim Rowledge; [hidden email]; http://www.rowledge.org/tim
Useful random insult:- Has a pulse, but that's about all.

Hi
What would the cwd be if you double-click on a desktop (linux/win/mac)?
most users do not start the image using a shell…
-t

On 14/06/20 1:09 pm, Marcel Taeumel wrote:
> Isn't that intended? You have a large number of images somewhere on your
> disk but only a handful of VMs. From Squeak's perspective, the current
> working directory should be where that image is located, not the VM.
Marcel,

If you don't mind, I will continue this discussion in a separate thread.

The unix vm does not change CWD when started from a console, so this
thread should really be closed.

Regards .. Subbu

On 14/06/20 1:14 pm, Tobias Pape wrote:
> What would the cwd be if you double-click on a desktop (linux/win/mac)?
> most users do not start the image using a shell…

It shouldn't matter. CWD is a property of the current process and shared
between the vm and plugin. It is just one of the platform-specific paths
that is used to resolve partial names into complete paths. I don't see a
need for the image to resolve the complete path before calling the
plugin to open/create files.

Instead of expecting the image to only give complete paths, let the
plugin resolve partial paths like 'squeak.image' by looking up a list of
directories like vmPath, CWD or even something like $HOME or $DOCUMENTS.

Earlier, someone (Tim?) proposed that squeak.image/changes be
distributed in the VM directory as readonly and let developers save
copies in their own directory. It will be trivial to support such
deployments if plugins resolved partial names too.

Regards .. Subbu

> On 14.06.2020, at 12:18, K K Subbu <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
> On 14/06/20 1:14 pm, Tobias Pape wrote:
>> What would the cwd be if you double-click on a desktop (linux/win/mac)?
>> most users do not start the image using a shell…
>
> It shouldn't matter. CWD is a property of the current process and shared between the vm and plugin. It is just one of the platform-specific paths that is used to resolve partial names into complete paths. I don't see a need for the image to resolve the complete path before calling the plugin to open/create files.

It sure does.

>
> Instead of expecting the image to only give complete paths, let the plugin resolve partial paths like 'squeak.image' by looking up a list of directories like vmPath, CWD or even something like $HOME or $DOCUMENTS.

kpsewhich, here we come xD

>
> Earlier, someone (Tim?) proposed that squeak.image/changes be distributed in the VM directory as readonly and let developers save copies in their own directory. It will be trivial to support such deployments if plugins resolved partial names too.

We can handle that without changing any file or plugin logic, already.
I've just not had the time to implement the copying logic.

Best regards
        -Tobias

>> On 12.06.2020, at 20:03, K K Subbu <[hidden email]> wrote:
>>
>> On 12/06/20 7:24 pm, Thiede, Christoph wrote:
>>> I just rechecked this under Ubuntu. Same issue here. Do you agree
>>> that it is a bug that the pwd is changed when starting the VM?
>>
>> On all platforms, the default directory is the current directory, but FileDirectory>>startUp is setting the default directory to that of the image instead of current directory. The attached fix will cure the fault.

I think we've established that this is not necessarily the case, certainly not for all platforms.

tim
--
tim Rowledge; [hidden email]; http://www.rowledge.org/tim
Strange OpCodes: IXM: Initiate X-rated error Messages

>> On 12.06.2020, at 20:03, K K Subbu <[hidden email]> wrote:
>>
>> On 12/06/20 7:24 pm, Thiede, Christoph wrote:
>>> I just rechecked this under Ubuntu. Same issue here. Do you agree
>>> that it is a bug that the pwd is changed when starting the VM?
>>
>> On all platforms, the default directory is the current directory, but FileDirectory>>startUp is setting the default directory to that of the image instead of current directory. The attached fix will cure the fault.

I think we've established that this is not necessarily the case, certainly not for all platforms.

tim
--
tim Rowledge; [hidden email]; http://www.rowledge.org/tim
Strange OpCodes: IXM: Initiate X-rated error Messages