[Radiance-general] Strange behaviour of xform

[Greg Ward]

Hi Terrance,

xform searches the RAYPATH variable for its input files.  For some reason, yours doesn't include the current directory "."  Therefore, it will only find "box.rad" if it exists in "/usr/local/lib/ray" and it has permission to reach the file.  If it exists but doesn't have permission, then it will only work if run in super-user mode.

A way around the above problem is always to give the path explicitly, e.g., "./box.rad" instead of "box.rad".  Or, simply include the current directory in your RAYPATH setting first, as is standard:  RAYPATH=".:/usr/local/lib/ray".

I did run a test just to see if sudo would allow "box.rad" to be found in the current directory despite its absence from RAYPATH and it worked just as you say.  I'm rather puzzled by this behavior, actually, so I'll have to investigate further.  In any case, the above fix is the one you want.

Cheers,
-Greg

> From: Terrance Mc Minn <t.mcminn at curtin.edu.au>
> Date: January 26, 2012 10:48:41 PM PST
> 
> Downloaded and compiled Head (2012/01/23) on linux (Ubuntu 10.10)
> 
> Xform does not seem to want to work with sub files unless running as root - I don't understand why and have not had problem in previous versions!
> 
> Example of problem can be replicated below:
> cd /tmp
> mkdir test
> cd test
> cat > box.rad << EOF
> !genbox blue_plastic box .5 .5 .5
> EOF
> 
> cat > main.rad << EOF
> void plastic blue_plastic
> 0
> 0
> 5 .1 .1 .6 .05 .1
> 
> !xform -rz 15 -t .5 .75 0 box.rad
> EOF
> 
> getbbox main.rad 
> xform: cannot find file "box.rad"
>      xmin      xmax      ymin      ymax      zmin      zmax
>     1e+10    -1e+10     1e+10    -1e+10     1e+10    -1e+10
> 
> sudo getbbox main.rad 
>      xmin      xmax      ymin      ymax      zmin      zmax
>   0.37059  0.982963      0.75   1.36237         0       0.5
> 
> 
> If the box file is incorporated in the main.rad file such as
> !genbox blue_plastic box .5 .5 .5 | xform -rz 15 -t .6 .75 0
> 
> then there is no problem with the "getbbox main.rad " running as user.
> 
> Other details:
> echo $PATH
> /opt/paraviewopenfoam381/bin:/home/ubuntu/OpenFOAM/ubuntu-1.7.1/applications/bin/linuxGccDPOpt:/opt/site/1.7.1/bin/linuxGccDPOpt:/opt/openfoam171/applications/bin/linuxGccDPOpt:/opt/openfoam171/wmake:/opt/openfoam171/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games
> 
> whereis getbbox xform
> getbbox: /usr/local/bin/getbbox
> xform: /usr/local/bin/xform
> 
>  echo $RAYPATH
> /usr/local/lib/ray
> 
> echo $SHELL
> /bin/bash
> 
> -- 
> 
> Terrance Mc Minn
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