[osgeo4w-dev] Re: osgeo4w-dev Digest, Vol 14, Issue 6

[Frank Warmerdam]

Matt Wilkie wrote:
>> The only other way I know to force the program to use "our" 
>> libtiff.dll is
>> to ensure that C:\OSgeo4W\bin is the current working directory when 
>> run the
>> program.  
> 
> I would certainly vote for this, if it works reliably, over renaming 
> libtiff and updating all the dependent packages now and forevermore.
> 
> For the archives and future reference, the default dll search order 
> according to msdn is:
> <quote>
>    1. The directory from which the application loaded.

Matt,

I think I was a bit wrong before suggesting the current working directory
was important.  The preference then is to have the .exe in the same place
the .dll's are.

For the most part we do this already, with stuff in C:\OSGeo4W\bin.  But
there are some exceptions.  QGis.exe and it's direct DLLs are in
c:\OSGeo4w\apps\qgis\bin for instance.  Also, the non-standard GDAL packages
have their exe's in the apps directory.  I presume GRASS does this as well.

So, I guess one questions is whether we should try harder to put .exe's
in the main bin directory.  I don't see any particular this couldn't
be done for the regular QGIS version.   GRASS might be messy partly because
there are just so many grass .exe files.  We can't do it for non-standard
versions of exe's (like gdal16 and gdal-dev).  I'm not sure if it is
practical or even necessary for the apache exe's currently in
C:\osgeo4w\apache\bin.  What about stuff that belongs in the cgi-bin
directory?  (I see mapserv.exe actually lives in our regular bin directory).

I'm also not sure what the implications are for DLLs loaded from odd places
like GDAL plugins.

Any other folks have thoughts on this?

Best regards,
-- 
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I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
and watch the world go round - Rush    | Geospatial Programmer for Rent