[Gdal-dev] win32 binary gdal distribution

[Ben Discoe]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Matt Wilkie
> 
> Ben Discoe wrote:
> 
> > IMHO it's not useful since it would
> > have to be (1) edited once for every installation
>
> 1) unfortunately, yeah. at least it's only one line though.

I think this is around the same bother as adding GDAL to the path, and..

> > (2) run every time you open a shell on Windows...
> > far better to simply put the GDAL
> > bin dir on your path, a one-time operation.
> 
> 2) If you CALL the batchfile from autoexec.bat you don't
> need to run it for every shell.

That's an interesting idea; i hadn't thought of that DOS legacy thing for
years.  Can you actually set environment variables there, which are then set
through the whole OS?

..for the purposes of installing any apps (e.g. VTP) which use GDAL, it has
to be added to the path anyway - a batch file run from a shell won't do it,
since it can't affect the system path.

> Adding the gdal\bin directory to path is insufficient; 
> the other variables need to be set as well (I think?
> they used to be necessary anyway).

Not really.  The important one is GDAL_DATA (GEOTIFF_CSV) which, again, must
be set for the whole system; a script to set it in one shell window isn't
much use.

> I guess I like the batch file approach because I find
> the tiny dialog Windows gives you for adding and
> changing environment variables hard to use.

It's awful, but it's one of those grit-and-bear-it things about Windows.

> rebooting sucks big-time though 
> ((I believe there is a mechanism to run specified batch files 
> everytime cmd.exe is started, obviating reboots,

Alas it won't obviate the reboot when the path/data vars need to be set for
apps using GDAL.

-Ben