bugGNU Octave - Bugs: bug #48095, GUI configuration files are...

 
 

bug #48095: GUI configuration files are undocumented

Submitter:  Francesco Potortì <pot>
Submitted:  Thu 02 Jun 2016 11:56:03 AM UTC
   
 
Category:  Documentation Severity:  2 - Minor
Priority:  3 - Low Item Group:  Documentation
Status:  Confirmed Assigned to:  None
Originator Name:  Open/Closed:  * Open
Release:  * dev Operating System:  * Any
Fixed Release:  None Planned Release:  None
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Fri 31 Jan 2020 08:56:21 PM UTC, comment #17: 

The patches attached to this bug report are out of date and do not reflect the current state of the configuration files. New patches to the user manual would be appreciated.

Mike Miller <mtmiller>
Group Member
Mon 04 Mar 2019 04:46:24 PM UTC, comment #16: 

I second Mike's comment.

Francesco Potortì <pot>
Mon 04 Mar 2019 04:40:44 PM UTC, comment #15: 

I think that even if the configuration files created by and for the GUI are "internal use only", their existence should at least be documented so that users who do care know where Octave is reading and writing its configuration from. We can also add a feature to reload default settings, essentially clearing the user's settings file. But I think the manual should at least mention somewhere where Octave expects to be able to read and write these files.

Mike Miller <mtmiller>
Group Member
Mon 04 Mar 2019 06:36:13 AM UTC, comment #14: 

I am not sure if the location of the configuration file should really be documented, since

  1. it might change in the near future due to ongoing bug reports (the newest one is bug #55822),
  2. it will depend on the different platforms and
  3. most importantly, the configuration file is not intended to be manually edited.


Instead, we could add a feature in the gui that allows to reload the "factory settings" if the current configuration file was messed up.

Torsten Lilge <ttl>
Group Member
Mon 04 Mar 2019 01:12:20 AM UTC, comment #13: 

This is still undocumented in Octave 5.1. If the patch still applies cleanly maybe this can be added on the stable branch for 5.2. I haven't looked at the patch yet.

Mike Miller <mtmiller>
Group Member
Fri 10 Jun 2016 09:05:21 AM UTC, comment #12: 

Looks good. Can someone push this?

Avinoam Kalma <avinoam>
Group Member
Fri 10 Jun 2016 06:11:33 AM UTC, comment #11: 

That's one possibility, Anivoam.  However, the table makes many other references to ~ too, which was my original reason for not explaining it in the last entry.

MacOS is Unix.  Its default shell is bash, which understands ~ (as does tcsh, its previous default shell).

How about the attached changeset?

(file #37443)

Lachlan Andrew <lachlan>
Wed 08 Jun 2016 11:22:53 AM UTC, comment #10: 

I tought aboput something like:
"Octave's GUI stores its configuration files in @file{~/.config/octave} (Unix) or @file{%userprofile%\.config\octave} (Windows)"

But was about other systems (Mac?)

BTW, I did check only for Win-7. Can anyone check for
other windows systems (XP and up)?

Avinoam Kalma <avinoam>
Group Member
Wed 08 Jun 2016 09:47:47 AM UTC, comment #9: 

Fancesco, it is a reference to an environment variable named userprofile.  I think that if you open a cmd prompt and type "echo %userprofile%" it will print something like "C:/Users/Documents and Settings/..."

Avinoam, would you like to suggest revised wording, or wait until I get around to it?

Lachlan Andrew <lachlan>
Wed 08 Jun 2016 07:46:48 AM UTC, comment #8: 

What is %userprofile% ?

Francesco Potortì <pot>
Wed 08 Jun 2016 07:09:52 AM UTC, comment #7: 

Yes, I think that the docs should be more explicit about the
windows location (ti translation from ~ to %userprofile% is not
obvoius)

Avinoam Kalma <avinoam>
Group Member
Wed 08 Jun 2016 06:50:10 AM UTC, comment #6: 

Thanks Avinoam.  That is what I meant when I wrote "~/.config/octave".  The other documentation also refers to "~/", so I'm assuming that Octave programmers know what that translates to on Windows.  Do you think the docs should be more explicit?

Lachlan Andrew <lachlan>
Wed 08 Jun 2016 06:28:28 AM UTC, comment #5: 

On windows (I have checked o win-7) the GUI configuration files
are stored in %userprofile%\.config\octave

Avinoam Kalma <avinoam>
Group Member
Tue 07 Jun 2016 11:35:45 AM UTC, comment #4: 

It turns out that the location of those configuration files (in particular on Windows) is the subject of an open bug report.

The attached patch documents the current behaviour.

(file #37421)

Lachlan Andrew <lachlan>
Mon 06 Jun 2016 07:44:31 AM UTC, comment #3: 

One more thing: I looked for the string "configuration file" but could not find any in all the manual: it would be helpful if such a string appeared in the Startup files chapter.

Francesco Potortì <pot>
Mon 06 Jun 2016 07:43:02 AM UTC, comment #2: 

There is a chapter in the manual that is called "Startup files", which is the place where this info should go

Francesco Potortì <pot>
Sun 05 Jun 2016 10:58:16 PM UTC, comment #1: 

Francesco, where in the documentation you would look for such information?  That will help us to know where to put it.

Lachlan Andrew <lachlan>
Thu 02 Jun 2016 11:56:03 AM UTC, original submission:  

The GUI keep its configuraion in ~/.config/octave/, which is undocumented.

Francesco Potortì <pot>

 

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    Follow 12 latest changes.

    Date Changed by Updated Field Previous Value => Replaced by
    2020-01-31 mtmiller StatusPatch Submitted Confirmed
        Release5.1.0 dev
    2019-03-04 mtmiller Carbon-CopyRemoved 80942 -
    2019-03-04 mtmiller Release4.0.2 5.1.0
    2016-06-10 lachlan Attached File- Added bug_48095_doc_GUI_config.v2.cset, #37443
    2016-06-07 lachlan Attached File- Added bug_48095_doc_GUI_config.cset, #37421
        StatusConfirmed Patch Submitted
        Dependencies- Depends on bugs #40444
    2016-06-02 mtmiller CategoryGUI Documentation
        Severity3 - Normal 2 - Minor
    2016-06-02 siko1056 Priority5 - Normal 3 - Low
        StatusNone Confirmed

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