How Epsilon Finds its Files

Lugaru's Epsilon
Programmer's
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Context:

Epsilon User's Manual and Reference

    Getting Started

       . . .

       Invoking Epsilon

       Configuration Variables

          How Epsilon Finds its Files

          The Customization Directory

       Epsilon Command Line Flags

       . . .

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Configuration Variables	Getting Started	The Customization Directory

Epsilon User's Manual and Reference > Getting Started > Configuration Variables >

How Epsilon Finds its Files

Sometimes Epsilon needs to locate one of its files. For example, Epsilon needs to read an .mnu file like gui.mnu or epsilon.mnu to determine what commands go in its menu bar.

Epsilon searches for the file in each directory named by the EPSPATH configuration variable. This configuration variable should contain a list of directories, separated by semicolons (or for Unix, colons). Epsilon will then look for the file in each of these directories. Under Windows, a directory named ~ in an EPSPATH variable has a special meaning. It refers to the current user's customization directory. See the next section.

If there is no EPSPATH configuration variable, which is the usual case on non-Windows systems, Epsilon constructs a default one. It consists of the user's customization directory, then the parent of the directory containing Epsilon's executable. For Unix, the default EPSPATH also contains the directories /opt/epsilonVER and /usr/local/epsilonVER (where VER indicates the current version, such as 10.01). For Mac OS, it also contains the Misc and Resources subdirectories within its app bundle, just after your customization directory.

If the name of the directory with Epsilon's executable doesn't start with bin, or its parent doesn't start with eps (they do, in a normal installation), Epsilon uses the directory containing Epsilon's executable, not its parent, in the default EPSPATH. (MacOS doesn't use this rule unless you manually rearrange files within its app bundle.)

Some flags can change the above behavior. The -w32 flag makes Epsilon look for files in the directory containing the Epsilon executable before trying the EPSPATH. The -w8 flag keeps Epsilon from including the executable's directory or its parent in the default EPSPATH.

The EEL compiler also uses the EPSPATH configuration variable. See EEL Command Line Flags.

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Configuration Variables Getting Started The Customization Directory