[GRASS-dev] Unable to install manual for add-on r.estimap.recreation under Windows

[Helmut Kudrnovsky]

NikosAlexandris wrote
> At times I think of Linux having some complicated ways
> to combine file (through make), to copy them around and still keep
> programs interacting and working.  In the end there is a bigger picture
> and I reach a point of some understanding.
> 
> After some installation-Fun under Windows, using OSGeo4W, however, I
> cannot
> understand how I can proceed in integrating an GRASS GIS add-on (here:
> r.estimap.recreation) withing QGIS' GRASS Plugin, in an automatic way.

[1] describes quite well where additional data used by software is stored in
the MS windows operating system:

"
[...]
AppData is a folder in your Windows user account home folder, and Roaming is
a folder within that. AppData\Roaming is where programs on your machine
store data that is specific to your user account. The folder is normally
hidden, and lives within your user account home folder. As an example, on
one of my machines the full path would be:

c:\Users\LeoN\Appdata\Roaming

Where “Roaming” is a sub folder of “AppData”.

Into that folder might be placed things like default templates,
configuration files, and other support data that applications might use that
a) might be different for other users of the machine, and b) aren’t your
actual working documents.

Now, AppData makes sense – it’s where Applications place Data. But what’s
with the “Roaming”?

Roaming around with Windows

AppData\Roaming is designed for use in what I’ll call a corporate
environment, though any widespread deployment of Windows in a large
environment could be configured to make use of it.

In these scenarios the idea is that your Windows account isn’t an account on
a specific machine, but rather an account in your company’s overall IT
infrastructure or “Domain”. In theory, then, you could log in to any machine
connected to your corporate network on which you have permission with your
single corporate Windows account.

And when you did so, the data that applications had placed in
AppData\Roaming would follow you to the machine you logged in on. It would
“roam” to whatever machine you happened to use.

AppData\Roaming at home

Outside of large Windows installations like I’ve described, the concept of
roaming simply isn’t used that much. At home I’d dare say it’s not used at
all.

However the folder most certainly is. When programs ask Windows, “Where
should put my data?” Windows responds with “Well, put it over in the current
user’s AppData\Roaming folder.”

At home and in most traditional small Windows installations the word
‘roaming’ really means nothing to us. It’s simply the folder in which
applications can put data and nothing more.
[...]
"

that was the reason to design g.extension in winGRASS to store addons in
that folder structure, i.e.:

C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Roaming\GRASS7\addons

this is safe and the user has always write permission also in a corporate
environment. 

IMHO GRASS_ADDON_BASE showing to that folder should also be set by QGIS.

some comments to the other places mentioned.

> C:\OSGeo4W64\apps\grass\grass-7.4.4

it's not guaranteed that the user has write permissions in C:\ and
subfolders like e.g. for storing addons there.

>## via GRASS GIS system-wide
>[...]
>and installs in
>  'C:\OSGeo4W64\apps\grass\grass-7.4.4\bin'
 > and  'C:\OSGeo4W64\apps\grass\grass-7.4.4\scripts'.

same as before

># Installing an add-on via QGIS' GRASS Plugin "GRASS Shell"
>
>## Standard installation
>
>```
>C:\OSGeo4W64\bin>g.extension r.estimap.recreation
>WARNING: GRASS_ADDON_BASE is not defined, installing to ~/.grass7/addons
>Downloading precompiled GRASS Addons <r.estimap.recreation>...
>Updating addons metadata file...
>Installation of <r.estimap.recreation> successfully finished
>WARNING: This add-on module will not function until you set the
>         GRASS_ADDON_BASE environment variable (see "g.manual variables")
>```
>
>Removing it, though, does not remove the .bat file from
>  'C:\Users\nik\.grass7\addons\bin'.

>~/.grass7/addons
>  'C:\Users\nik\.grass7\addons\bin'.

such folder structures like should be avoided; no roaming possible

>The only way I found it works, is when all is copied under 2)
>  'C:\OSGeo4W64\apps\qgis-ltr-dev\grass\bin'
>  and  'C:\OSGeo4W64\apps\qgis-ltr-dev\grass\scripts'.

never seen this folder structure in my OSGeo4W environment. where does this
comes from? QGIS? manually created?

>The .bat file under 
 > 'C:\Users\nik\AppData\Roaming\GRASS7\addons\bin\'
>  remains untouched.

that's a bug, please open a ticket.



[1] https://askleo.com/whats-the-appdata-roaming-folder/




-----
best regards
Helmut
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