QGIS's processing (sextante) toolbox hijacks grass's .rc file

[hamish]

Hi,

if you use the processing (sextante) toolbox in QGIS it overwrites the ~/.grassrc6 file with its own temporary location settings in /tmp/processing.

• this breaks the ipython demos which expect the .rc file to be in its unmolested state
• this makes extra work for standalone grass users who have to click around to re-find their projects
• the toolbox should use mkdtemp() or similar for health and safety reasons
• don't mess with other programs' settings, it's rude

The toolbox can and should take care of its own GISRC file, through environment variable settings and a temporary copy or clone, and it will never need to touch the user's real copy. See GRASS 6's Init.sh script which does just this, and the live disc's "gisvm/bin/install_grass7.sh" script's 'preconfig setup' for a sample, it only needs to be a 3 line text file.

cheers, Hamish

[kalxas]

Is this still valid now that we use GRASS7 installer?

[neteler]

See also

Bug #5644: GRASS integration should use private, not user's .grassrc6 file

​http://hub.qgis.org/issues/5644

[jef]

Wouldn't the demos also be affected if the user ran GRASS on a different dataset and try the demos afterwards?

[jef]

QGIS ticket fixed.