Mac OS X - location of preferences / senc files

[Strolls]

Hi there,

On Mac OS X (10.5) OpenCPN creates opencpn.ini and org.opencpn.plist files in the ~/Library/Preferences/ folder, which seems fine.

Running January's release of OpenCPN 4.0.0, it also creates an empty ~/Library/Preferences/opencpn directory, which seems odd.

OpenCPN is also creating its .BMP and .S57 files in ~/Library/Preferences/SENC/ which I found quite unexpected.

I guess this is a known issue, but I don't find this forum very easy to search, so I was wondering if this was considered a bug.

IMO the .BMP and .S57 files should be created in ~/Library/Preferences/opencpn or preferably somewhere in ~/Library/Application Support/

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[CarCode]

I don't know if OpenCPN still runs with outdated Leopard (10.5). Soon we will have 10.11.
However after a long time request the actual alpha version 4.427 now stores the supplementary files of OpenCPN in ~/Library/Preferences/opencpn/ and not any more all over the folder ~/Library/Preferences/.
Hopefully one day the supplementary files of the different plugins will also be stored in ~/Library/Preferences/opencpn/plugins/ to finally stop all the mismatch with OS X.
*.plist files are however produced by the OS itself and must stay in their places.

Gerhard

[Strolls]

I'm sorry for the typo. I'm running OpenCPN on 10.9.

Thanks for the reply.

If I wish to upgrade to 4.427, do I need to move anything?

[fogmachine]

I've made a change the Platform.cpp file to move the configuration files on OSX to ~/Library/Preferences/opencpn. Hoping Dave can accept the pull request soon.

[CarCode]

Originally Posted by fogmachine

I've made a change the Platform.cpp file to move the configuration files on OSX to ~/Library/Preferences/opencpn. Hoping Dave can accept the pull request soon.

It is already in OCPN github sources.

Gerhard

[Strolls]

I've just found the beta (?) version OpenCPN 4.1.602, and am pleased to report improvement beyond that described above:

Library/Preferences/opencpn.ini -> Library/Preferences/opencpn/opencpn.ini
Library/Preferences/raster_texture_cache/ -> Library/Preferences/opencpn/raster_texture_cache/
Library/Preferences/SENC/ -> Library/Preferences/opencpn/SENC/

I think that the SENC and raster_texture_cache directories should, according to Apple's dev guidelines, be stored in either "Library/Application Support/opencpn" or Library/Caches/opencpn

I'm sure you have considered this, and have good reasons for not doing so, but thought I'd add this comment to my previous thread so that others may find the discussion in future.

I am fairly easily able to generate 17GB of SENC and raster_texture_cache files.

[Strolls]

Update:

Library/Logs/opencpn.log -> Library/Preferences/Logs/opencpn.log

I am not so impressed with.

[CarCode]

Originally Posted by Strolls

Update:

Library/Logs/opencpn.log -> Library/Preferences/Logs/opencpn.log

I am not so impressed with.

Indeed that is not the best solution. It should be in ~/Library/Logs/ where logs belong to.
After implementing the files OCPNPlatform.cpp and OCPNPlatform.h there was some mismatch in the pathes for Mac OS X. However it is a good idea to keep all supplementary files in one directory now. It doesn't really matter which one but it needs to be only one for all. This helps users to find the files and in case of deinstallation deleting them all.
It is up to the plugin developers now to do the same e.g. keep their supplementary files in ~/Library/Preferences/opencpn/plugins/<plugin-name>/

Gerhard