BUG 2 - User preferences folder not writable
User preferences folder cannot be a subfolder of Ancestris main installation path :
Which Operating System? : Windows
Which version of the O.S.? : Windows 7 64Bits
Which version of Ancestris? : Long standing behavior at least since 0.7 also prevalent in 0.8beta, 0.8.4500 20130901
What is your Java version? : Java 1.7_07-b10
What are the windows opened on your Ancestris application? : None fails at startup
This bug is related to the application itself or a plugin? : Application itself
If it's about a plugin, which plugin? :
If you use the beta version, do you update Ancestris each time a new version is available? : Yes
This bug appeared right after an update (you didn't get it before, and right now, you have it) : Present since I started testing it on Ancestris 0.7, Long standing behavior at least since 0.7 also prevalent in 0.8beta, 0.8.4500 20130901
Which version of the module is concerned (check the "Help - About" dialog box) : example, Ancestris Core: 0.8.0.4509
What is the process that makes the bug to appear (the more details you can give, the better it is) : Change Ancestris\etc\ancestris.conf to have default_userdir="/MyUserPreferences" and application fails to start.
I am not sure this is a bug or intended behavior, but I'll explain:
I like using all my applications as portable applications (that is one that can run from a thumb drive, or USB stick or external hard-drive without a formal installation on any Windows system), which do not modify the system in any major way, like writing a lot to registry or leaving preferences and settings in the Windows user folder. I know this is not standard behavior and you probably don't officially support this, so this bug may be more like a feature request.
Anyway I tried manually editing the file Ancestris\etc\ancestris.conf so that the user preferences are saved withing the main Ancestris installation folder (instead of the default Windows User profile ${HOME}) and have successfully changed the default_userdir= to another folder.
The problem is I can make it write the preferences anywhere I want with relative paths like default_userdir="../MyUserPreferences", but if I try to make Ancestris write to a subfolder of the main Ancestris Installation ( like default_userdir="/MyUserPreferences" for example) the folder is successfully created, but an empty file named lock is placed there and the application no longer starts.
Could this be changed or this intended behavior for some security reason or something?
Backtrace in the log file :