On KiCad 5 this environment variable controls the place used by KiCad to read kicad_common
configuration file. So far, so good.
The first strange thing is that KiCad has a configuration section to store environment redefinitions. This is handy for users that lacks OS skills and wants to change the environment variables. But this creates a complex situation: a user can define KICAD_CONFIG_HOME
from inside KiCad. Then KiCad will read kicad_common
from the default place and all the other configuration files from what KICAD_CONFIG_HOME
(the one defined inside kicad_common
) indicates. Even when this behavior has some logic I find it confusing and complex. Is this a feature or a bug?
IMHO I understand that some people may need the environment configuration dialog, but allowing to define KICAD_CONFIG_HOME
from this dialog creates really complex situations. Some configuration comes from one place, the rest from another.
On KiCad 5.99, I tried defining KICAD_CONFIG_HOME
and it was completly ignored. Is this the intended behavior or is just a bug? I already found a bug in the current nightly reporting the config path from Python Bug 6989. It looks like the nightlies are doing some dirty path handling to redirect paths to kicadnightly
instead of kicad
.
I’m maintaining a script that needs to have access to KiCad configuration. It works very well on normal installations, but a user reported very bizarre things and I found what I describe. What I want to know is what should my script do.