Re: Squeak-dev Digest, Vol 282, Issue 23

I am in the habit of having multiple Squeak set ups on my (Linux) computer.
And at any given time I can run any one of them.
Does your proposed setup allow for this?
Using an environment variable would help but seems clumsy.

Ralph Boland

On Mon, 15 Jun 2026 at 18:00,
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>    1. File locations for linux (and mostly other *nix too)
>       (tim Rowledge)
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> Message: 1
> Date: Mon, 15 Jun 2026 15:58:15 -0700
> From: tim Rowledge <[email protected]>
> Subject: [squeak-dev] File locations for linux (and mostly other *nix
>         too)
> To: The general-purpose Squeak developers list
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> For far too long (eh, like 30 years) the directory layout we are using for the various flavours of *nix have annoyed me. This is a fixable problem.
>
> There is an actual standard that people are supposed to adhere to; it’s the "Filesystem Hierarchy Standard” as per https://refspecs.linuxfoundation.org/FHS_3.0/fhs/index.html
>
> My understanding of this standard suggests that we should be installing all the ’static’ parts  (the VM, the .sources, any default config files, arguably the initial release .image & .changes) in the /opt tree (per https://refspecs.linuxfoundation.org/FHS_3.0/fhs/ch03s13.html) under a ’squeak’ subdirectory. For the VM I would suggest making use of the multiple version trick used by the development make system whereby the base VM directory has more than one lib/squeak/{complicated name release/version thing}, and a modestly clever shell script that finds the right one to use for the image being fired up. I think we have a suitable script somewhere that Dave L has kept alive?
>
> We would need to modify the SmalltalkImage>>#sourcesFilePaths code to add the ‘proper’ location, which I suggest would be /opt/squeak/shared. I could swear we used to have a primitive that helped work out the appropriate platform places to look at, but maybe I’m misremembering? I *don’t think* that the vm path is a good place in general, and I suspect that the old related code that fusses about misusing aliases (in SmalltalkImage>>#openSourcesAndChanges:forImage:) is now out of date.
>
> Related but applicable to most platforms, it seems to me that the behaviour of the assorted all-in-one & platform specific packages is not just wrong but dangerous when using them to start a new default image. The default image is after all effectively the ‘default template’ that many creative applications use for a first start or ‘New File’ option. That file should be read-only and the startup script should make a copy of it in a more user-visible directory, not use the initial one and let naive users corrupt it by playing with it and saving a damaged version. This could perhaps be managed with the config wizard for example, which would provide an opportunity to explain why this is done.
>
> Anyone want to argue otherwise?
>
> tim
> --
> tim Rowledge; [email protected]; http://www.rowledge.org/tim
> "How many Motie Warriors does it take to change a lightbulb?”
> "None. One of the dead ones will do it."
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> End of Squeak-dev Digest, Vol 282, Issue 23
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