On Fri, Dec 28, 2001 at 03:10:03PM -0800, Tim Rowledge wrote:
> 
> 
> Joshua 'Schwa' Gargus wrote:
> > 
> > It seems to me that looking for a loadable module in the same
> > directory that the VM exists in is a very sensible behavior.  For some
> > reason, the Linux VM does not do this.
> According to the code in
> platforms/unix/vm/sqUnixExternalPrims.c>ioLoadModule(), it looks in
> current dir, /etc/ld.so.cache, /usr/lib, /lib, SQ_LIBDIR, so it really
> should be working for you. 

I guess I haven't paid the necessary attention to SQ_LIBDIR.  Is it set
via an argument to configure?

> I usually end up with the plugins in the same
> directory as the cwd. 

Really?  You have your image, filed-out changesets, and other
miscellany all in the same directory with .so plugin files?  I think
that I'd find that quite cluttered.  I guess that you primarily do
this on your Acorn, and probably have a nice GUI file browser that
separates them based on their file type.  Is this your Linux usage
pattern as well?  I still haven't found a GUI for Linux that pisses me
off less than it helps me out.

> Surely it also ought to look in the same directory
> as the vm, and maybe in a suitable subdir of that.

If I fixed that, could I send you the patch to upload to SourceForge?

> 
> > There seems to be no security
> > reason for this; if a terrorist could put bad plugins in the VM
> > directory, said terrorist could also replace the VM with their own.
> Probably true :-) Note that it would be possible to override a vm with
> all internal plugins and security turned on simply by putting
> non-secured external plugins in any one of those directories.

That is true.

Bye,
Joshua

> > 
> > On a related note, "Smalltalk vmPath" incorrectly answers the
> > directory that the image resides in.
> So it does. And it does it with deliberate care - see
> platforms/unix/vm/sqXWindow.c>RecordFullPathForImageName(). Looks like a
> fix is needed from someone that understands how to get path info for the excutable.
> 
> tim
> 
> 
>