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Env-Var to move ~/.MakeMKV/ directory?

Posted: Tue Oct 01, 2024 6:13 pm
by W4tchT0wer
Hi folks,

I am trying to clean up my user home directory on my Linux system.

And I am simply trying to change the location MakeMKV uses instead of ~/.MakeMKV/ as my user home is full of files that simply do not belong there, including the directory by MakeMKV.

I can see in the MakeMKV settings, that I can change the data directory, but that's not enough.

Most apps provide a environment variable that can be set, and it would be very nice if MakeMKV also has one.
Does anybody know something about that?

Thanks and have a nice day!

Re: Env-Var to move ~/.MakeMKV/ directory?

Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2024 7:06 am
by segfaulted
The variable HOME will set the directory where .MakeMKV will be found. I don't think there's any way to change the name for .MakeMKV itself. A few other external libs also seem to reference that variable, so don't be surprised if other dot folders show up alongside it.

Re: Env-Var to move ~/.MakeMKV/ directory?

Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2024 5:35 pm
by flojo
Makemkv doesn't need to pollute the environment. Try using a script to define HOME=/what/ever then start makemkv.

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash
mkdir -p /home/$USER/apps
HOME=/home/$USER/apps
makemkv

Re: Env-Var to move ~/.MakeMKV/ directory?

Posted: Wed Oct 09, 2024 1:07 pm
by W4tchT0wer
Thanks for your replies and sad to see that MakeMKV does not support such a simple thing.

I've opted for creating the wrapper script ~/.local/bin/makemkv and override $HOME in there. That way, my desktop shortcut etc. also works properly.

Code: Select all

#!/bin/sh
export HOME="${XDG_STATE_HOME:-$HOME/.local/state}"/makemkv
mkdir --parent "$HOME"
/usr/bin/makemkv

I haven't had any issues yet, but we'll see

Re: Env-Var to move ~/.MakeMKV/ directory?

Posted: Wed Oct 09, 2024 8:12 pm
by bmillham
W4tchT0wer wrote:
Tue Oct 01, 2024 6:13 pm
And I am simply trying to change the location MakeMKV uses instead of ~/.MakeMKV/ as my user home is full of files that simply do not belong there, including the directory by MakeMKV.
The convention of having . directories in $HOME (vs somewhere like .config) is over 50 years old. I would just leave well enough alone.

Re: Env-Var to move ~/.MakeMKV/ directory?

Posted: Wed Oct 09, 2024 8:40 pm
by W4tchT0wer
bmillham wrote:
Wed Oct 09, 2024 8:12 pm
The convention of having . directories in $HOME (vs somewhere like .config) is over 50 years old. I would just leave well enough alone.
Well, it would be pretty easy to fix/improve ^^

A lot of applications allow you to provide a path via Env-Vars and I got rid of about 20 dot files/directories in my user-home with that.
Having apps use the correct location by-default would be better, but that's a valid workaround for me and very worth it.