Environment variables vs. putenv

[jeffd]

I currently use the environment variable MAYA_SCRIPT_PATH for adding additional paths for Maya to search for scripts. Since I am maintaining this in a multi-user shop, this gets to be a pain when users get new machines or if I want to add to or change these path locations. Also, it makes it very hard to support scripts across Maya versions since every path is visible to all versions and I would like to separate version-specific scripts into separate directories.

Anyway, I have long suspected that I could instead set up these environment variables from userSetup.mel. I began experimenting with this today and haven't had much luck.

I am currently trying the following line in my userSetup...

 putenv "MAYA\_SCRIPT\_PATH" "c:shared\_scripts";

After loading up Maya, using getenv "MAYA_SCRIPT_PATH" returns the proper path, but trying to run a script in that location gets a "cannot find procedure."

Am I off-base with thinking this can be done from userSetup? Thoughts?

--JeffD

[warpcat]

Man, don't have Maya in front of me right now.... so I can't comment directly on that. I use the "Maya.env" file to define all my paths. If could be conceivable that you could have a script run on each persons machine that would update that text file with the paths you need. However, I'm pretty darn sure there's a way to set enviroment variables from within Maya.... but I'd try using "set" system command, and use a system call from within Maya to do it... My syntax will be way off here, but somthing like this:
system ("set MAYA_SCRIPT_PATH c:/bla");
One last thought. Through mel you could get a listing of every script in an external location, then using a for loop source each one at startup.

[jeffd]

Like I said, the behavior of putenv is odd since it queries as working but it doesn't actually seem to create a search path. I think the system command approach is a pretty safe bet, though. I will have to hit up one of my programmers to get the exact syntax.

Thanks for the feedback, Warp.

--JeffD

[jeffd]

Like I said, the behavior of putenv is odd since it queries as working but it doesn't actually seem to create a search path. I think the system command approach is a pretty safe bet, though. I will have to hit up one of my programmers to get the exact syntax.

Thanks for the feedback, Warp.

--JeffD

[warpcat]

Come to think of it, maybe it IS working correctly. You're adding the enviroment variable AFTER Maya's booted. I'm sure it's adding just fine, but by the sheer fact you're adding the new paths via a script, this means the script path has already been sourced by Maya. I think you'd STILL have to do what I mentioned before, resource all the scripts in the new directory after the fact.