FS-UAE: missing path documentation

[rofl0r]

i had to run FS-UAE in strace to find out where it has its root directory.
it is in $HOME/Documents/FS-UAE
usually on linux stuff is placed in $HOME/.appname
the directory $HOME/Documents is not even likely to exist.
it just happens to be there on ubuntu.

additionally, the F12 menu didn't recognize any of the .adf files i placed in Floppies/ dir.
(e.g. showing empty list)

[FrodeSolheim]

Originally Posted by rofl0r

i had to run FS-UAE in strace to find out where it has its root directory.
it is in $HOME/Documents/FS-UAE
usually on linux stuff is placed in $HOME/.appname
the directory $HOME/Documents is not even likely to exist.
it just happens to be there on ubuntu.

additionally, the F12 menu didn't recognize any of the .adf files i placed in Floppies/ dir.
(e.g. showing empty list)

Hi,

The path stuff is (more or less) documented:
http://fengestad.no/wp/fs-uae/getting-started
http://fengestad.no/wp/fs-uae/documentation

Yes, with recent standards, the preferred locations on Linux is
~/.config for config files, and
~/.local/share for data files (both subject to configuration)

One reason for using a more "visible" location is that with FS-UAE, you would need to manually create configuration files, whereas with many other applications, configuration is just stored in ~/.config (the user may not even know it). So this choice was motivated by having the configuration directory easy to find by users, and currently also the same across all platforms.

It doesn't always use $HOME/Document btw, it respects the users configured Documents directory, which could be named something else (according to xgd user dir specification).

You can use ~/.config/fs-uae/fs-uae.conf, and you can override the directory paths there if you want to prevent creation of ~/Documents/FS-UAE

The files in the floppies dir does not automatically appear anywhere, but you can reference them in configurations by name only (without path).

You may also be interested in the launcher: http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=64531

[rofl0r]

Originally Posted by FrodeSolheim

Hi,

The path stuff is (more or less) documented:
http://fengestad.no/wp/fs-uae/getting-started
http://fengestad.no/wp/fs-uae/documentation

i've read them all, but it doesnt specify the *exact* path. it speaks about "My Documents"

Originally Posted by FrodeSolheim

Hi,


Yes, with recent standards, the preferred locations on Linux is
~/.config for config files, and
~/.local/share for data files (both subject to configuration)

One reason for using a more "visible" location is that with FS-UAE, you would need to manually create configuration files, whereas with many other applications, configuration is just stored in ~/.config (the user may not even know it). So this choice was motivated by having the configuration directory easy to find by users, and currently also the same across all platforms.

It doesn't always use $HOME/Document btw, it respects the users configured Documents directory, which could be named something else (according to xgd user dir specification).

oh. if its xdg-specific, portability will get a hit. imagine it linked against SDL on a framebuffer-only linux install.
why not simply use a FSUAEDIR environment variable, the current path ($CWD), or a command line argument ? i think the latter would be the nicest.

running fs-uae would yield in: error: please specify path with --path=/my/fsuae-root/.
so you create the directory structure using fs-uae -create-directories /foo/bar, and create a wrapper script to launch it and you're done.

or it asks for a path on first start, and then stores it in ~/.fs-uaerc

note that this is a thought experiment about how to make it simpler for anybody to get it to work.

Originally Posted by FrodeSolheim

Hi,

You can use ~/.config/fs-uae/fs-uae.conf, and you can override the directory paths there if you want to prevent creation of ~/Documents/FS-UAE

The files in the floppies dir does not automatically appear anywhere, but you can reference them in configurations by name only (without path).

hmm, so what is the purpose of the empty menu/list that is displayed when one selects the floppy drive in the gui ?

Originally Posted by FrodeSolheim

Hi,

You may also be interested in the launcher: http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=64531

hmm well, that one will require some to build some gui toolkit first, which is a major PITA for LFS kind of linux systems. to get QT/GTK up and running, you have to compile *dozens* of libraries and be lucky enough that they all work together. i'd prefer if all this functionality could be used from inside the cool SDL gui.

[FrodeSolheim]

Originally Posted by rofl0r

i've read them all, but it doesnt specify the *exact* path. it speaks about "My Documents"

Yes, well I write "(My) Documents" for simplicity, the point is the current user's documents directory whatever it is called

Originally Posted by rofl0r

oh. if its xdg-specific, portability will get a hit. imagine it linked against SDL on a framebuffer-only linux install.
why not simply use a FSUAEDIR environment variable, the current path ($CWD), or a command line argument ? i think the latter would be the nicest.

running fs-uae would yield in: error: please specify path with --path=/my/fsuae-root/.
so you create the directory structure using fs-uae -create-directories /foo/bar, and create a wrapper script to launch it and you're done.

or it asks for a path on first start, and then stores it in ~/.fs-uaerc

note that this i thought experiment about how to make it simpler for anybody to get it to work.

Without XDG configuration, It will still work, but fall back to ~/FS-UAE. Anyway, there is already an argument for this, try the --base-dir.

Originally Posted by rofl0r

hmm, so what is the purpose of the empty menu/list that is displayed when one selects the floppy drive in the gui ?

The floppy image list (items from floppy_image_list_x options) are displayed there. You can set them manually, or using a launcher that will automatically include them. For instance, FS-UAE Launcher does this.

Originally Posted by rofl0r

hmm well, that one will require some to build some gui toolkit first, which is a major PITA for LFS kind of linux systems. to get QT/GTK up and running, you have to compile *dozens* of libraries and be lucky enough that they all work together. i'd prefer if all this functionality could be used from inside the cool SDL gui.

I understand what you want here, but I see FS-UAE rather as an engine, and features which cannot be in a launcher (such as floppy swapping) needs to be in FS-UAE itself. But what can be implemented outside FS-UAE can normally be implemented *faster* and easier outside FS-UAE, which is major consideration.

There is nothing stopping extra functionality to be available in a "cool SDL GUI". For instance, one could create a fullscreen frontend for game or floppy selection, and start FS-UAE seamlessly (which the unreleased FS Game Center does).

In theory, for game selection for instance, you could have an application which looks exactly like FS-UAE (if that is a goal), and starts FS-UAE when you select a game. Many games require a full emulator reset anyway (say an AGA vs OCS game), and merely swapping floppies is not good enough. So the difference between a emulation reset and a program restart can be quite insignificant -even not detectable if one wants to..

There are some advantages to run FS-UAE on demand as well. By restarting the entire program when starting a new game for instance, there is less possibility of a bug in the emulator reset when hardware options are changed, causing game compatibility problems.

This is for instance a screenshot of my other fullscreen launcher, which is based on SDL, OpenGL and Python: http://fengestad.no/fs-game-center/screenshot.png

[gunatm]

I got the same problems with the path stuff, because it is not really documented on your page. At first nice product! Thanks! I need examples for the config files like Config and Default to understand. I would like to create a mobile configuration, which does not create any directories in "my documents". The log files are more informative than the hp. I want the startdir as basedir, but i do not understand, where i can define that.

[FrodeSolheim]

Originally Posted by gunatm

I got the same problems with the path stuff, because it is not really documented on your page.

I think that is a weird statement, since "path stuff" has been documented for quite a while: http://fs-uae.net/paths.

I you want to have a portable setup, you may also want to take a look at the development version (http://fs-uae.net/download-devel) which even has a dedicated portable download.

[gunatm]

Thank you! that should help. I give feedback, when it´s done. Best regards from Hamburg