[Paraview] ParaView Environment Variables

Tue Dec 15 11:27:26 EST 2015

This page [1] is now accessible from here [2].

[1] http://www.paraview.org/ParaView3/Doc/Nightly/www/cxx-doc/EnvironmentVariables.html
[2] http://www.paraview.org/ParaView3/Doc/Nightly/www/cxx-doc/index.html

On Thu, Dec 10, 2015 at 3:51 AM, Joachim Pouderoux
<joachim.pouderoux at kitware.com> wrote:
> This is a good idea and for information Utkarsh started to write this
> documentation in
>    Utilities/Doxygen/pages/EnvironmentVariables.md
>
> For now it is just in a merge request (and it is not complete) but no doubt
> if will be in master very soon!
>
>       https://gitlab.kitware.com/paraview/paraview/merge_requests/511
>
> Joachim
>
> Joachim Pouderoux
>
> PhD, Technical Expert
> Kitware SAS
>
>
> 2015-10-19 19:31 GMT+02:00 Cory Quammen <cory.quammen at kitware.com>:
>>
>> Hi Bill,
>>
>> This is a good project. Perhaps we can include a version of your man page
>> in the user's guide when it is finished?
>>
>> I know about some of these environment variables:
>>
>> - PARAVIEW_DATA_ROOT - used to point ParaView to a testing data
>> repository. This is really only used when ParaView's tests are run and
>> likely isn't useful to users.
>>
>> - PV_NO_OFFSCREEN_SCREENSHOTS - just what it sounds like. If set,
>> offscreen rendering will not be used for generating screenshots, even if the
>> ParaView settings say that offscreen rendering should be used for generating
>> screenshots.
>>
>> - VTK_AUTOLOAD_PATH - users shouldn't need to set this. From the
>> vtkObjectFactory documentation: "The first time CreateInstance is called,
>> all dll's or shared libraries in the environment variable VTK_AUTOLOAD_PATH
>> are loaded into the current process."
>>
>> - VTK_RENDERER - this looks like a historical way to choose which render
>> window to instantiate. It doesn't look like it is used anymore.
>>
>> - PV_DEBUG_LEAKS_VIEW - enables a window that shows the number of
>> instances of all VTK classes. Useful for debugging, not really useful for
>> users.
>>
>> -PV_DEBUG_TEST - I don't see this in the ParaView source anywhere
>>
>> - PV_SETTINGS_DEBUG - turns on debugging message related to loading
>> ParaView's settings files, e.g., where it looked for the settings file.
>>
>> - PV_PLUGIN_DEBUG - print debugging output having to do with where
>> ParaView looks for plugins.
>>
>> - PV_PLUGIN_PATH - adds search path for plugins
>>
>> - VTK_MATPLOTLIB_DEBUG - Enable verbose debugging output during
>> initialization of matplotlib.
>>
>> Hope that helps,
>> Cory
>>
>> On Thu, Oct 15, 2015 at 4:58 PM, Bill Sherman <shermanw at indiana.edu>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Hello all,
>>>
>>> Perhaps an odd question -- I'm wondering what important environment
>>> variables are associated with ParaView, and in some cases what they
>>> do.
>>>
>>> I ask because for an installation of ParaView on an HPC system, I
>>> am creating a traditional man-page.  And one of the traditional
>>> sections of man pages for applications is "ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES".
>>>
>>> I happened to find that NERSC had previously done a similar thing,
>>> but based on the command line arguments as well as the environment
>>> variables it gives no longer in existence, it would seem that this
>>> is from a rather old version of ParaView, so I'm basically starting
>>> from scratch.
>>>
>>> Searching through the source for "getenv", I found several refernces
>>> to environment variables, and I'd like to get advice on what should/
>>> should not be included.
>>>
>>> So there are a couple of categories the environment variables can
>>> be classified as.
>>>
>>> 1) ParaView specific variables:
>>>         - PV_ICET_WINDOW_BORDERS
>>>         - PARAVIEW_DATA_ROOT
>>>         - PV_NO_OFFSCREEN_SCREENSHOTS
>>>
>>> So I know what the first of those does, and I had an assumption of
>>> what the second one (PARAVIEW_DATA_ROOT) does -- but I couldn't find
>>> a way to make it have an effect!  And I can half-guess what the third
>>> one does -- explanations welcome.
>>>
>>>
>>> 2) VTK related variables:
>>>         - VTK_AUTOLOAD_PATH
>>>         - VTK_RENDERER
>>>
>>> And I don't really know what either of them do.
>>>
>>>
>>> 3) Generic environment variables that ParaView accesses:
>>>         - DISPLAY
>>>         - HOME
>>>         - HOSTNAME
>>>         - LOGNAME
>>>         - PATH
>>>         - LD_LIBRARY_PATH
>>>         - PWD (VTK/Utilities/KWSys/vtksys/SystemTools.cxx)
>>>         - PYTHONPATH
>>>         - TCL_LIBRARY (vtkTclUtil.cxx)
>>>         - TK_LIBRARY (vtkTclUtil.cxx)
>>>         - R_HOME (vtkRInterface.cxx)
>>>         - COLUMNS (VTK/Utilities/KWSys/vtksys/SystemTools.cxx)
>>>         - APPDATA -- for MS-Windows only?
>>>         - COMMON_APPDATA -- for MS-Windows only?
>>>
>>> So I don't know that I'd need to include those as part of a ParaView
>>> man-page.
>>>
>>>
>>> 4) Other variables that are probably just for internal testing:
>>>         - PV_DEBUG_LEAKS_VIEW
>>>         - PV_DEBUG_TEST
>>>         - PV_SETTINGS_DEBUG
>>>         - PV_PLUGIN_DEBUG
>>>         - PV_PLUGIN_PATH
>>>         - DASHBOARD_TEST_FROM_CTEST
>>>         - DART_TEST_FROM_DART
>>>         - VERBOSE_TESTING (Exodus)
>>>         - VERY_VERBOSE_TESTING (Exodus)
>>>         - FLIP_CAM_MANIP (Interactor Style Unicam)
>>>         - VTK_MATPLOTLIB_DEBUG (vtkMatplotlibMathTextUtilities.cxx)
>>>         - QT_MAC_NO_NATIVE_MENUBAR
>>> (ThirdParty/QtTesting/vtkqttesting/pqTestUtility.cxx)
>>>
>>> Again, probably wouldn't include these in a man-page, unless they are
>>> something the end-user could possibly want to affect.
>>>
>>>
>>> Happy to share the man-page when I'm done.
>>>
>>>         Thanks,
>>>         Bill
>>>
>>> --
>>> Bill Sherman
>>> Sr. Technology Advisor
>>> Advanced Visualization Lab
>>> Pervasive Technology Inst
>>> Indiana University
>>> shermanw at indiana.edu
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>>> Please keep messages on-topic and check the ParaView Wiki at:
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>>>
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>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Cory Quammen
>> R&D Engineer
>> Kitware, Inc.
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Powered by www.kitware.com
>>
>> Visit other Kitware open-source projects at
>> http://www.kitware.com/opensource/opensource.html
>>
>> Please keep messages on-topic and check the ParaView Wiki at:
>> http://paraview.org/Wiki/ParaView
>>
>> Search the list archives at: http://markmail.org/search/?q=ParaView
>>
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>>
>