Binary needs to be started from 'appdir' directory...

[HaleTom]

Good news: I've worked around the hunspell library naming issue with LD_LIBRARY_PATH=.

Now I'm working around qt.conf:

The doco says that qt.conf must be in the same directory as the executable, meaning I can't put it in /usr/bin due to conflicts with other packages.

So I plan to put qt.conf and the executable in /usr/bin/nixnote2, and have /usr/bin/nixnote2 be a wrapper script to run /usr/bin/nixnote2/nixnote2.

I've updated the qt.conf to have Prefix = ../../ due to the extra directory created.

The issue I'm hitting is:

% /home/ravi/code/aur/nixnote2-bin/squashfs-root/usr/bin/nixnote2/nixnote2 --logLevel=0
INFO  2018-10-19 18:59:45.152 src/settings/startupconfig.cpp:315 Changed logLevel via command line option to 0
DEBUG 2018-10-19 18:59:45.153 src/settings/startupconfig.cpp:733 Setting command: #0 to value=true
DEBUG 2018-10-19 18:59:45.153 src/main.cpp:131 Startup config ret=0, guiAvailable=true
DEBUG 2018-10-19 18:59:45.207 src/settings/filemanager.cpp:95 Setting up file paths:  startupConfigDirPath="", startupUserDataDir="", startupProgramDirPath=""
DEBUG 2018-10-19 18:59:45.207 src/settings/filemanager.cpp:110 Checking whenever legacy config dir exists: "/home/ravi/.nixnote"
DEBUG 2018-10-19 18:59:45.207 src/settings/filemanager.cpp:114 Legacy config/data dir found. falling back to that: "/home/ravi/.nixnote/"
DEBUG 2018-10-19 18:59:45.207 src/settings/filemanager.cpp:312 Checking write access for directory "/home/ravi/.nixnote"
DEBUG 2018-10-19 18:59:45.207 src/settings/filemanager.cpp:312 Checking write access for directory "/home/ravi/.nixnote"
DEBUG 2018-10-19 18:59:45.208 src/settings/filemanager.cpp:50 Default program dir path: applicationDirPath="/home/ravi/code/aur/nixnote2-bin/squashfs-root/usr/bin/nixnote2"
ERROR 2018-10-19 18:59:45.208 src/settings/filemanager.cpp:58 Binary needs to be started from 'appdir' directory...
ERROR 2018-10-19 18:59:45.208 src/settings/filemanager.cpp:59 E.g. use something like: cd $$PROJECT_DIR; ./appdir/usr/bin/nixnote2
%

Is there a way to disable or workaround this check? Perhaps if an environment variable (eg $NIXNOTE2_SKIP_APPDIR_CHECK) is set?

[HaleTom]

As background for the desire for a binary package:

• I want to save user's time in compiling
• Provide access to the skeleton config file
• Provide access to the documentation

Both of the last two are difficult using the AppImage format, and the AppImage also contains many non-needed libraries (newer versions of which Arch already has)

[robert7]

Hi,
I understand what you want to do, but I think it is not the "correct" way. Therefore you'll get various unnecessary problems..

The Idea of AppImage is:

• the application in AppImage packaging is "self contained" - it contains all the dependencies in a coherent set - which plays together well
• yes its bigger then native package, but I think the people today don't care so much whenever the app is 50MB or 3MB. They care more whenever it works out of the box.
• yes it may be, that some libraries included in the AppImage are older then on your system, but the someway guaranteed to work
• the AppImage should work on ~all distributions and it should be really "plug&play" - download/mark as executable - run - it should work

As you start replacing libraries by LD_LIBRARY_PATH and removing parts of the AppImage this all may break..
I think correct way would be to build a binary package for your distribution. I have no idea how this work on Arch - and have no time to study it now. But the idea would be to do something like the pre-built binary "deb" packages, which are build in the PPA for Ubuntu - one package per Ubuntu version.

With that being said, what you want to do, can be reached (but I think you'll get further problems along the way.. so the problems only start :) )..

The error message you get happens when Nixnote is searching for application data. It expects to be run as $SOMEDIR/bin/nixnote2 then it searches for the data in $SOMEDIR/share/nixnote2. Thats all. The algorithm can be overriden by --programDataDir command line option.

Example (2 executions one failed - then one with manual override):

 /d/dev/nixnote2/qmake-build-debug  ./nixnote2                                                                                           5.3s
ERROR 2018-10-23 08:42:32.449 src/settings/filemanager.cpp:58 Binary needs to be started from 'appdir' directory...
ERROR 2018-10-23 08:42:32.449 src/settings/filemanager.cpp:59 E.g. use something like: cd $$PROJECT_DIR; ./appdir/usr/bin/nixnote2
robert7@LP-RSPIEGEL:/d/dev/nixnote2/qmake-build-debug$ 


 /d/dev/nixnote2/qmake-build-debug  ./nixnote2 --programDataDir=/d/dev/nixnote2/appdir/usr/share/nixnote2 --logLevel=1                  110ms
INFO  2018-10-23 08:42:42.290 src/settings/startupconfig.cpp:342 "Set programDataDir via command line to /d/dev/nixnote2/appdir/usr/share/nixnote2"
INFO  2018-10-23 08:42:42.290 src/settings/startupconfig.cpp:315 Changed logLevel via command line option to 1
DEBUG 2018-10-23 08:42:42.290 src/settings/startupconfig.cpp:733 Setting command: #0 to value=true
DEBUG 2018-10-23 08:42:42.290 src/main.cpp:131 Startup config ret=0, guiAvailable=true
DEBUG 2018-10-23 08:42:42.358 src/settings/filemanager.cpp:95 Setting up file paths:  startupConfigDirPath="", startupUserDataDir="", startupProgramDirPath="/d/dev/nixnote2/appdir/usr/share/nixnote2/"
DEBUG 2018-10-23 08:42:42.358 src/settings/filemanager.cpp:110 Checking whenever legacy config dir exists: "/home/robert7/.nixnote"
DEBUG 2018-10-23 08:42:42.358 src/settings/filemanager.cpp:114 Legacy config/data dir found. falling back to that: "/home/robert7/.nixnote/"
DEBUG 2018-10-23 08:42:42.358 src/settings/filemanager.cpp:312 Checking write access for directory "/home/robert7/.nixnote"
DEBUG 2018-10-23 08:42:42.358 src/settings/filemanager.cpp:312 Checking write access for directory "/home/robert7/.nixnote"
DEBUG 2018-10-23 08:42:42.358 src/settings/filemanager.cpp:141 Resulting file paths: configDir="/home/robert7/.nixnote/", userDataDir="/home/robert7/.nixnote/", programDataDir="/d/dev/nixnote2/appdir/usr/share/nixnote2/"

[robert7]

I improved the error message. Now it says:

 /d/dev/nixnote2  ./qmake-build-debug/nixnote2                                                                                                 7.1s
ERROR 2018-10-24 10:43:23.465 src/settings/filemanager.cpp:58 Binary needs to be started from application directory...
ERROR 2018-10-24 10:43:23.466 src/settings/filemanager.cpp:59 Expected runtime pathname is $SOMEDIR/bin/nixnote2, then application data is expected in $SOMEDIR/share/nixnote2
ERROR 2018-10-24 10:43:23.466 src/settings/filemanager.cpp:62 E.g. use something like: cd $PROJECT_DIR/appdir; ./usr/bin/nixnote2. Or you may use --programDataDir command line option for manual override.

[robert7]

The updated message is available in 2.0.1-beta5a (but its just a clue/info ).
Let me know in case "--programDataDir" did not worked for you.

[HaleTom]

Brilliant, thanks for the --programDataDir tip. I'll look into it over the next few days!

[HaleTom]

I downloaded today's AppImage and tried with a bunch of possible options to --programDataDir:

% pwd        
/home/ravi/code/aur/nixnote2-bin/pkg-root/usr/bin/nixnote
% ./nixnote2 
ERROR 2018-10-28 13:40:42.629 src/settings/filemanager.cpp:58 Binary needs to be started from application directory...
ERROR 2018-10-28 13:40:42.629 src/settings/filemanager.cpp:59 Expected runtime pathname is $SOMEDIR/bin/nixnote2, then application data is expected in $SOMEDIR/share/nixnote2
ERROR 2018-10-28 13:40:42.629 src/settings/filemanager.cpp:62 E.g. use something like: cd $PROJECT_DIR/appdir; ./usr/bin/nixnote2. Or you may use --programDataDir command line option for manual override.
% ./nixnote2 --programDataDir /home/ravi/code/aur/nixnote2-bin/squashfs-root/usr/bin/nixnote/
ERROR 2018-10-28 13:41:11.315 src/settings/filemanager.cpp:58 Binary needs to be started from application directory...
ERROR 2018-10-28 13:41:11.315 src/settings/filemanager.cpp:59 Expected runtime pathname is $SOMEDIR/bin/nixnote2, then application data is expected in $SOMEDIR/share/nixnote2
ERROR 2018-10-28 13:41:11.315 src/settings/filemanager.cpp:62 E.g. use something like: cd $PROJECT_DIR/appdir; ./usr/bin/nixnote2. Or you may use --programDataDir command line option for manual override.
% ./nixnote2 --programDataDir /home/ravi/code/aur/nixnote2-bin/squashfs-root/usr/bin/ 
ERROR 2018-10-28 13:41:21.241 src/settings/filemanager.cpp:58 Binary needs to be started from application directory...
ERROR 2018-10-28 13:41:21.241 src/settings/filemanager.cpp:59 Expected runtime pathname is $SOMEDIR/bin/nixnote2, then application data is expected in $SOMEDIR/share/nixnote2
ERROR 2018-10-28 13:41:21.241 src/settings/filemanager.cpp:62 E.g. use something like: cd $PROJECT_DIR/appdir; ./usr/bin/nixnote2. Or you may use --programDataDir command line option for manual override.
% ./nixnote2 --programDataDir /home/ravi/code/aur/nixnote2-bin/squashfs-root/usr/    
ERROR 2018-10-28 13:41:25.483 src/settings/filemanager.cpp:58 Binary needs to be started from application directory...
ERROR 2018-10-28 13:41:25.483 src/settings/filemanager.cpp:59 Expected runtime pathname is $SOMEDIR/bin/nixnote2, then application data is expected in $SOMEDIR/share/nixnote2
ERROR 2018-10-28 13:41:25.483 src/settings/filemanager.cpp:62 E.g. use something like: cd $PROJECT_DIR/appdir; ./usr/bin/nixnote2. Or you may use --programDataDir command line option for manual override.
% ./nixnote2 --programDataDir /home/ravi/code/aur/nixnote2-bin/squashfs-root/    
ERROR 2018-10-28 13:41:29.998 src/settings/filemanager.cpp:58 Binary needs to be started from application directory...
ERROR 2018-10-28 13:41:29.998 src/settings/filemanager.cpp:59 Expected runtime pathname is $SOMEDIR/bin/nixnote2, then application data is expected in $SOMEDIR/share/nixnote2
ERROR 2018-10-28 13:41:29.998 src/settings/filemanager.cpp:62 E.g. use something like: cd $PROJECT_DIR/appdir; ./usr/bin/nixnote2. Or you may use --programDataDir command line option for manual override.
% ./nixnote2 --programDataDir /home/ravi/code/aur/nixnote2-bin/squashfs-root/usr/lib
ERROR 2018-10-28 13:44:01.877 src/settings/filemanager.cpp:58 Binary needs to be started from application directory...
ERROR 2018-10-28 13:44:01.877 src/settings/filemanager.cpp:59 Expected runtime pathname is $SOMEDIR/bin/nixnote2, then application data is expected in $SOMEDIR/share/nixnote2
ERROR 2018-10-28 13:44:01.877 src/settings/filemanager.cpp:62 E.g. use something like: cd $PROJECT_DIR/appdir; ./usr/bin/nixnote2. Or you may use --programDataDir command line option for manual override.
% ./nixnote2 --programDataDir /home/ravi/code/aur/nixnote2-bin/squashfs-root/usr/share
ERROR 2018-10-28 13:44:17.970 src/settings/filemanager.cpp:58 Binary needs to be started from application directory...
ERROR 2018-10-28 13:44:17.970 src/settings/filemanager.cpp:59 Expected runtime pathname is $SOMEDIR/bin/nixnote2, then application data is expected in $SOMEDIR/share/nixnote2
ERROR 2018-10-28 13:44:17.970 src/settings/filemanager.cpp:62 E.g. use something like: cd $PROJECT_DIR/appdir; ./usr/bin/nixnote2. Or you may use --programDataDir command line option for manual override.
% ./nixnote2 --programDataDir /home/ravi/code/aur/nixnote2-bin/squashfs-root/usr/share/nixnote2
ERROR 2018-10-28 13:44:25.347 src/settings/filemanager.cpp:58 Binary needs to be started from application directory...
ERROR 2018-10-28 13:44:25.348 src/settings/filemanager.cpp:59 Expected runtime pathname is $SOMEDIR/bin/nixnote2, then application data is expected in $SOMEDIR/share/nixnote2
ERROR 2018-10-28 13:44:25.348 src/settings/filemanager.cpp:62 E.g. use something like: cd $PROJECT_DIR/appdir; ./usr/bin/nixnote2. Or you may use --programDataDir command line option for manual override.

Note, all of the above directories exist (they were entered by tab-expansion).

Perhaps it's the code that checks for the existence of the given directory?

% ./nixnote2 --programDataDir /root/DOESNOTEXIST
ERROR 2018-10-28 13:46:12.833 src/settings/filemanager.cpp:58 Binary needs to be started from application directory...
ERROR 2018-10-28 13:46:12.834 src/settings/filemanager.cpp:59 Expected runtime pathname is $SOMEDIR/bin/nixnote2, then application data is expected in $SOMEDIR/share/nixnote2
ERROR 2018-10-28 13:46:12.834 src/settings/filemanager.cpp:62 E.g. use something like: cd $PROJECT_DIR/appdir; ./usr/bin/nixnote2. Or you may use --programDataDir command line option for manual override.

[HaleTom]

In the message, is SOMEDIR the root of the place it's being run from?

What is PROJECT_DIR?

[robert7]

$SOMEDIR is the "install prefix". If you unpack the AppImage into /home/ravi/code/aur/nixnote2-bin/squashfs-root then it its /home/ravi/code/aur/nixnote2-bin/squashfs-root/usr.
Then if you run /home/ravi/code/aur/nixnote2-bin/squashfs-root/usr/bin/nixnote2 then it should find the data by itself as it should be in /home/ravi/code/aur/nixnote2-bin/squashfs-root/usr/share/nixnote2.

Or you can say nixnote2 --programDataDir /home/ravi/code/aur/nixnote2-bin/squashfs-root/usr/share/nixnote2.

$PROJECT_DIR is the "project directory" - where you checkout the project from git, then its get per default installed in $PROJECT_DIR/appdir and $SOMEDIR would be $PnixnROJECT_DIR/appdir/usr.

simple case with appimage

here data is NOT relocated, but I point to data dir manually

example where you compiled & installed to default location

here finaly example where binary is in non standard path but I point manually to data

[robert7]

--programDataDirneed to be a path with following files:

[HaleTom]

Thanks for the examples!

I worked out it was a syntax thing...

--programDataDir /d/dev/nixnote2/appdir/usr/share/nixnote2 doesn't work

--programDataDir=/d/dev/nixnote2/appdir/usr/share/nixnote2 does work

The = is mandatory but no warning is printed if it is not given.

[robert7]

The = is mandatory but no warning is printed if it is not given.

yes. that's true.