Portable Espanso on Windows does not override installed copy about espanso HOT 5 OPEN

With the help of @joh6nn I have worked out that this issue rides on the way in which portable Espanso is started. The following notes are from Windows 11 using Powershell, with portable Espanso in D:\Temp\EspansoPortable.

If I exit installed Espanso and start portable Espanso from the portable folder using 'START_ESPANSO.bat' (as recommended in the portable readme.txt file) and then enter 'espanso path' I get the following response:

Config: C:\Users\Cam\AppData\Roaming\espanso
Packages: C:\Users\Cam\AppData\Roaming\espanso\match\packages
Runtime: C:\Users\Cam\AppData\Local\espanso

If I then install a package using 'espanso install package-name' it goes into the default packages folder for installed Espanso even though portable Espanso is running.

However, if I exit portable Espanso and restart it using '.\espanso.cmd start' followed by '.\espanso.cmd path' I get the following response:

Config: D:\Temp\EspansoPortable\.espanso
Packages: D:\Temp\EspansoPortable\.espanso\match\packages
Runtime: D:\Temp\EspansoPortable\.espanso-runtime

If I then install a package using '.\espanso.cmd install package-name' it goes into the packages folder for portable Espanso as expected.

In summary, this issue is not a bug but it would be a useful enhancement if it was clarified in the readme file and Espanso docs.

from espanso.

https://github.com/search?q=repo%3Aespanso%2Fespanso%20start_espanso.bat&type=code appears to show the origin of START_ESPANSO.bat.

Is the code, or the documentation, incorrect?

from espanso.

@smeech START_ESPANSO.bat is a batch file with the following content:

start espansod.exe launcher

This differs from espanso.cmd which is a command that contains:

@"%~dp0espansod.exe" %*

I can use either to start portable Espanso but the first one picks up paths from the installed copy of Espanso while the second one picks up the expected portable paths. There is a comment at the foot of the README.txt for portable Espanso, which indicates that espanso.cmd handles STD console handles correctly. However, I think most users would take the advice of the top of the file to start espanso by clicking on START_ESPANSO.bat (also advised at https://espanso.org/docs/get-started).

from espanso.

Does it make a difference if installed Espanso hasn't been run?
Can anyone comment on why START_ESPANSO.bat might have its current contents (given that we're not likely to hear from Federico).

Do we need to correct the code, or the documentation?

from espanso.

@smeech It doesn't make a difference if installed Espanso has not been run. It seems that START_ESPANSO.bat defers to the paths set by the installer whereas .\espanso.cmd correctly picks up the portable paths. This comparison holds true while portable Espanso is running.

from espanso.