uci applications in PATH

Forum: DSL Ideas and Suggestions
Topic: uci applications in PATH
started by: alfille

Posted by alfille on Sep. 27 2005,18:14

It would be nice if there were an easy way to add applications to the PATH (and maybe lib's too).

Perhaps adding /opt/bin to the standard path, and allowing binaries opr links to that.

That way the .tar.gz or wrapper scripts wouldn't be needed.

Posted by mikshaw on Sep. 27 2005,18:34

Wrapper scripts are still needed if the application requires libs that are not in standard locations. The user.tar.gz has uses beyond what you might think. It is actually a myDSL extension embedded in the compressed uci file, so theoretically it can be used for just about anything a tar.gz extension can.

While I agree that /opt/bin would be convenient, there are other ways a user can easily add uci extensions to his path.

You can create the /opt/bin directory yourself, and add that to your path:

Code Sample

export PATH="/opt/bin:$PATH"
ln -s /opt/something/bin/something /opt/bin/

That's how I do it, except my bin directory is /home/dsl/bin.

You can add the individual apps to your path, or try all in one go:

Code Sample

for i in /opt/*/bin; do export PATH="$i:$PATH"; done

That only works if the app is set up with its executable(s) in /opt/something/bin.

You can make aliases for the applications you want to run with a short command:

Code Sample

alias im='/opt/imagemagick/bin/display'

I'm sure there are other methods.

Posted by alfille on Sep. 28 2005,15:30

Thanks for the response.

Are you suggesting I have a /usr/bin/myapp entry in user.tar.gz?

A wrapper script works great for graphical apps that run from an icon, but for a command line app, especially a utility, it's awkward.

I currently pop up a dillo page explaining that to use my app (OWFS) you must call /opt/owfs/bin/owfs.

I'll do the user.tar.gz approach, but I was trying to be stingy in my use of memory. Now that I think about it, requiring uncompressing each time the PATH is explored might be a little unwieldy, too.

Posted by mikshaw on Sep. 28 2005,15:57

You should NOT have a /usr/bin/myapp in a .tar.gz or .uci package. There should be nothing that writes to /usr, /bin, /boot, /lib, or /sbin. These directories are all initially read-only. After mkwriteable has run (e.g. after loading a .dsl package) you can load files into these directories from a .tar.gz package, but by that time there's not much point in it being a tar.gz. For the sake of consistency, it's best to use a .dsl package for anything that needs to go into these directories.

I don't see why it's such a trouble to add bin directories to your PATH variable manually...it's one of the basic parts of being a linux user. If you are really that concerned with ease-of-use, just make your application a .dsl package that installs into /usr. If you go through the trouble of making an html page you could have set the PATH a hundred times over in that time.

I have no idea what your last sentence is saying. The PATH is explored every time you issue a command (gadzillions of times a day). There is no uncompressing required when this happens.