VMD-L Mailing List

From: Carlos Simmerling (carlos.simmerling_at_gmail.com)
Date: Sat Mar 06 2021 - 16:35:29 CST

Hi John,

thanks for checking, I started to then got a bit confused.

Do you mean VMDTMPDIR? I see that (but not TMPDIR) listed on
https://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/vmd/vmd-1.9.1/ug/node208.html but honestly
it isn't clear on windows how to set this.
If it's set by default to c: (where Viewmaster is trying to write) that
seems bad since it usually isn't writable unless you're running as admin.

I would think that windows programs would use %TEMP% for temp writing:
C:\WINDOWS\system32>echo %Temp%
C:\Users\carlos\AppData\Local\Temp

thanks
Carlos

On Sat, Mar 6, 2021, 1:41 PM John Stone <johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu> wrote:

> Hi Carlos,
> I had time to quickly read the code for the ViewMaster plugin, and
> indeed it looks for the TMPDIR enviroment variable and uses that to
> determine where to save temporary files, when it is set, it is checking
> for TMPDIR and using it when set:
> if { [info exists env(TMPDIR)] } {
> set tmpdir $env(TMPDIR)
> } else {
> set tmpdir /tmp
> }
>
> A bunch of other parts of VMD also use TMPDIR to direct its choice of
> temporary file location, which is why I asked in the previous email, but
> clearly this plugin is also directly using it, so I belive this is the
> reason you're getting the behavior you're seeing.
>
> Best,
> John
>
> On Fri, Mar 05, 2021 at 10:12:50AM -0600, John Stone wrote:
> > Carlos,
> > I'm wondering if you have the environment variable TMPDIR set,
> > if so, is it set to "C:"?
> >
> > Best,
> > John
> >
> > On Fri, Mar 05, 2021 at 10:56:07AM -0500, Carlos Simmerling wrote:
> > > hi all,
> > > I'm trying to use viewmaster with VMD for WIN64, version 1.9.4a51.
> > > when I click on "create new" I get this error message in the
> console.
> > > How do I set the working directory for viewmaster? It keeps trying
> to
> > > write to c:.
> > > I tried changing the location in the viewmaster menus "save as" and
> "set
> > > session file" and it didn't seem to help.
> > > thanks
> > > carlos
> > > vmd > pwd
> > > E:/carlos/Desktop
> > > vmd > Info) Rendering current scene to 'c:viewmaster.16648.ppm' ...
> > > ERROR) Could not open file c:viewmaster.16648.ppm in current
> directory for
> > > writing!
> > > Info) Rendering complete.
> >
> > --
> > NIH Center for Macromolecular Modeling and Bioinformatics
> > Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
> > University of Illinois, 405 N. Mathews Ave, Urbana, IL 61801
> > http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/~johns/ Phone: 217-244-3349
> > http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/vmd/
>
> --
> NIH Center for Macromolecular Modeling and Bioinformatics
> Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
> University of Illinois, 405 N. Mathews Ave, Urbana, IL 61801
> http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/~johns/ Phone: 217-244-3349
> http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/vmd/
>