Re: Per-revision configuration directories

[Jeff Long]

Christophe: There appears to be one cache file, unaffected by any environment variables. I haven't found this to be much of a problem going between 3.8 and 3.9, but I think I remember having to delete it at one point.

Lucas: See if deleting the block cache that Christophe mentions helps at all. If you haven't, put in an issue on Github to capture "need separate configs" so it doesn't get lost.

On Wed, Jan 20, 2021 at 4:18 PM Christophe Seguinot <christophe.seguinot@orange.fr> wrote:

Hi

I'm also interested in having multiple version on my linux distribution
and will soon try it.

about "The issue is that different versions just change so many things
and you get all kinds of nasty issues..."

I recently experienced such nasty issues while uninstalling GR3.9 and
installing GR3.8. Uninstalling and reinstalling was clean. However I
fight one day to finally discover that gnuradio cache should be deleted
when switching version. (this is for Linux /Ubuntu the cache is
~/.cache/grc_gnuradio/cache.json

Question: if using multiple versions , is there multiple cache files for
GNURadio? If not you must probably delete cache every time you switch
from one to the other.



On 20/01/2021 20:50, Lukas Haase wrote:
> Hi Jeff,
>
> I am trying to switch between 3.7, 3.8 and 3.9.
> Hence GR_PREFS_PATH is unfortunately too new.
>
> I have tried GR_CONF_GRC_GLOBAL_BLOCKS_PATH but it does not resolve any issues.
>
> The issue is that different versions just change so many things and you get all kinds of nasty issues if the configuration is shared between different versions.
> I think not separating ~/.gnuradio and ~/.grc_gnuradio across major revisions is a terrible idea. All major applications (just thinking of MATLAB, Mathematica, ...) separate it.
>
> Just as an example: Everything works fine with 3.8
>
> Then I switch to 3.9 and I get:
>
> Generate Error: 'catch_exceptions'
>>>> Failure
> Traceback (most recent call last):
>    File "/opt/gnuradio/github-master/lib/python3/dist-packages/gnuradio/grc/gui/Application.py", line 710, in _handle_action
>      generator.write()
>    File "/opt/gnuradio/github-master/lib/python3/dist-packages/gnuradio/grc/core/generator/top_block.py", line 83, in write
>      for filename, data in self._build_python_code_from_template():
>    File "/opt/gnuradio/github-master/lib/python3/dist-packages/gnuradio/grc/core/generator/top_block.py", line 122, in _build_python_code_from_template
>      'catch_exceptions': fg.get_option('catch_exceptions')
>    File "/opt/gnuradio/github-master/lib/python3/dist-packages/gnuradio/grc/core/FlowGraph.py", line 181, in get_option
>      return self.options_block.params[key].get_evaluated()
> KeyError: 'catch_exceptions'
>
> when generating a flowgraph. Once I delete ~/.gnuradio and ~/.grc_gnuradio, it works.
>
>
> Is there a cmake switch to set these to ~/.gnuradio/3.8 and ~/.grc_gnuradio/3.8 etc. at compile time?
>
> Best,
> Lukas
>
>
> PS: I changed the title of this conversation because in the end it's about separating the config across multiple revisions. If this done via environment variables or not does not matter in the end.
>
>
>> From: Jeff Long <willcode4@gmail.com>
>> Subject: Re: ~/.gnuradio and ~/.grc_gnuradio as environment variables
>>
>> In 3.9, the environment variable GR_PREFS_PATH optionally points to the
>> location of the user's .gnuradio directory, which is then used for the rest
>> of configuration.
>>
>> On all versions, GR_CONF_GRC_GLOBAL_BLOCKS_PATH will override the location
>> of the system block descriptions, assuming they've been installed in
>> different directories.
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Jan 18, 2021 at 11:11 PM Lukas Haase <lukashaase@gmx.at> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> Is it possible to set the paths to ~/.gnuradio and ~/.grc_gnuradio via
>>> environment variables?
>>>
>>> I can't imagine that I am the only one suffering from this but these
>>> directories are a royal pain when switching between gnuradio functions.
>>>
>>> I am using environment modules and ideally I'd just set those via
>>> environment variables to something like ~/.gnuradio-3.7 and
>>> ~/.grc_gnuradio-3.7.
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> Lukas
>>>
>>>
>>> PS: I was trying to hack something with symlinks but this gets so
>>> unreliable (e.g. when a user uses different versions in different shells)
>>> ... so this is not a solution.
>
>