At some point in my C program I have to deal with something like this.
FILE * fptr = fopen("/Parent/child/.../file.dat");
Which means in order to access any file I need to know it's location. That's all understandable.
But, how can I make this generic? In my computer "/Parent/child/.../file.dat" will work because that's where the file is stored, but I'm making a software to distribute to other users so the path obviously differs. My question is, how can I install a specific file into the user's computer such that I can know and get the location of that file. I a but confused about this concept so any resources that could help me understand it better would be greatly appreciated.
In Linux the default path to application files should be hardcoded. There is a standard which applications should follow. For example, architecture-independent files should go to /usr/share/ and then either your application name or, if you expect the data to be shared between applications, a generic category such as images. User-specific configuration files should go $HOME/.config/<app-name>. Older applications place their default configuration in $HOME/.<app-name> instead.
You should also provide an ability to override the default path to the data with a command line switch and/or an environment variable and/or a user configuration file (the location of the latter should also be overridable with a command line switch and/or an environment variable).
Some applications search for their data directory relatively to the executable position. An executable can know its own absolute path by reading /proc/self/exe symbolic link. For example, if an executable finds itself in /usr/local/bin/somename, it can look for /usr/local/share/<app-name> (two levels up from the executable name and down to share/<app-name>.).
Finally, if you distribute source code for the users to build, the file locations should be configuration parameters.
Many commands access files, and they usually take a path relative to ~/ which I gather is the "home" directory. In my case, C:\Users\Grant\AppData\Roaming\ which is where .emacs.d\ and my init files live.
This is great for Emacs, but not as useful for me. I typically would be over in C:\Users\Grant\Documents\ or my Python script files directory.
Also, I'm using Customize and typing in absolute file names for things like Org capture templates (currently anything I capture goes into files in one particular directory). Not that it's likely that these locations will change, but I was wondering if there are variables I can set for these places, which I can use in Customize or when invoking Dired - maybe some sort of environment variable? And if so, how can I refer to them when typing in a file name?
I have a local markdown file containing several links and I want that links head to local file like pdf.
I use the following syntax:
[my link](file:///C:/my_file.pdf)
But when I open my markdown file into a Firefox page and click on the link, nothing happens.
What exactly have I missed? Is it possible to open local file?
None of the answers worked for me. But inspired in BarryPye's answer I found out it works when using relative paths!
# Contents from the '/media/user/README_1.md' markdown file:
Read more [here](./README_2.md) # It works!
Read more [here](file:///media/user/README_2.md) # Doesn't work
Read more [here](/media/user/README_2.md) # Doesn't work
How are you opening the rendered Markdown?
If you host it over HTTP, i.e. you access it via http:// or https://, most modern browsers will refuse to open local links, e.g. with file://. This is a security feature:
For security purposes, Mozilla applications block links to local files (and directories) from remote files. This includes linking to files on your hard drive, on mapped network drives, and accessible via Uniform Naming Convention (UNC) paths. This prevents a number of unpleasant possibilities, including:
Allowing sites to detect your operating system by checking default installation paths
Allowing sites to exploit system vulnerabilities (e.g., C:\con\con in Windows 95/98)
Allowing sites to detect browser preferences or read sensitive data
There are some workarounds listed on that page, but my recommendation is to avoid doing this if you can.
You link to a local file the same way you link to local images. Here is an example to link to file start_caQtDM_7id.sh in the same directory as the markdown source:
After messing around with #BringBackCommodore64 answer I figured it out
[link](file:///d:/absolute.md) # absolute filesystem path
[link](./relative1.md) # relative to opened file
[link](/relativeToProject.md) # relative to opened project
All of them tested in Visual Studio Code and working,
Note: The absolute and relative to opened project path work in editor but don't work in markdown preview mode!
If you have spaces in the filename, try these:
[file](./file%20with%20spaces.md)
[file](<./file with spaces.md>)
First one seems more reliable
This is a old question, but to me it still doesn't seem to have a complete answer to the OP's question. The chosen answer about security being the possible issue is actually often not the problem when using the Firefox 'Markdown Viewer' plug-in in my experience. Also, the OP seems to be using MS-Windows, so there is the added issue of specifying different drives.
So, here is a little more complete yet simple answer for the 'Markdown Viewer' plug-in on Windows (and other Markdown renderers I've seen): just enter the local path as you would normally, and if it is an absolute path make sure to start it with a slash. So:
[a relative link](../../some/dir/filename.md)
[Link to file in another dir on same drive](/another/dir/filename.md)
[Link to file in another dir on a different drive](/D:/dir/filename.md)
That last one was probably what the OP was looking for given their example.
Note this can also be used to display directories rather than files.
Though late, I hope this helps!
Thank you drifty0pine!
The first solution, it´s works!
[a relative link](../../some/dir/filename.md)
[Link to file in another dir on same drive](/another/dir/filename.md)
[Link to file in another dir on a different drive](/D:/dir/filename.md)
but I had need put more ../ until the folder where was my file, like this:
[FileToOpen](../../../../folderW/folderX/folderY/folderZ/FileToOpen.txt)
If the file is in the same directory as the one where the .md is, then just putting [Click here](MY-FILE.md) should work.
Otherwise, can create a path from the root directory of the project. So if the entire project/git-repo root directory is called 'my-app', and one wants to point to my-app/client/read-me.md, then try [My hyperlink](/client/read-me.md).
At least works from Chrome.
In window application, I am accessing one file and the file path is declared in app.config file. After that I create exe for that application. Now the problem is when path is changed in app.config file when setup is created is this changes updated in setup or not?. If yes, how can I do that?
Its better to use relative paths, but As I understand, you cant use they.
So, only one possible solution in my opinion - define file path during instalation or add special dialog on programm first run to let user to define the path.
I've got a Maven2 project, where I use assembly plugin. Everything would be just fine if created assembly file name wouldn't ended with format extension (ex. ".zip"). I specified in plugin configuration a fileName parameter and setted appendAssemblyId to false. I have already spent few hours on that problem... Any idea?
My answer is a bit of a non-answer - don't remove the format extension. If you are using a specific <format> in your assembly descriptor to produce an artifact (zip, tar.gz, etc.) there is exists no good reason to remove the extension from the file. If I'm a user of your software and download this binary, I don't want to have to guess as to what the packaging type is, I should be able to tell just by looking at the filename.
FWIW, setting appendAssemblyId to false means that the <id> of your assembly descriptor will not be included in your file name.
Now, if you really are dead set on making this a pain for you and everyone else, what you probably want to do (as with most nonsensical things people want to make maven do) is to either use the antrun plugin to rename the generated file during your maven invocation, or just simply run a shell script to rename it after your maven process has finished.