FileOpenSavePath points to /tmp

[luzpaz]

https://forum.freecadweb.org/posting.php?mode=reply&f=10&t=15525#pr183554

[luzpaz]

CC @probonopd

[probonopd]

I got an appimage and have run it without problems except for a nuisance. The path for opening files is only the current working dir of the appimage, which seems to always create a /tmp/.mount_FreeCAU5f21S when it runs and that is the "FileOpenSavePath"

An AppImage is a compressed filesystem that is mounted to a temporary mountpoint like /tmp/.mount_FreeCAU5f21S when it is executed, and the application is then run from there. Since some applications hardcode paths to within /usr, we do a little trick: We patch /usr with a string of the same length, ././, which means "this directory. To make this work, we chdir() to usr/ inside the temporary mountpoint before executing the application. FreeCAD seems to present the user the current working directory ($CWD) when showing the file dialogs. This is why you see the temporary mountpoint location.

Is there a way to change this when running an appimage?

Mutliple options, with the cleanest (but also hardest) option first:

1. Ensure that FreeCAD and its dependencies do not hardcode any paths to /usr anywhere (can also happen during compilation), i.e., make the application fully "relocateable" (= run from any location) by using paths relative to the application only. Then we don't need the workaround described above and can remove the patch and the chdir()
2. When presenting the user with file dialogs, show $OWD (=original working directory) if this environment variable is set. It is always set inside an AppImage
3. When presenting the user with file dialogs, show $HOME

If you have questions, AppImage developers are on #AppImage on irc.freenode.net.

[triplus]

When migrating from PPA to Conda (FreeCAD 0.18+), as a basis for AppImage, things changed. File dialogs now default to current working directory. This is standard Linux behavior and therefore i am closing this issue report.