[QUESTION] Is there any plan following `GetFolderPath` changes in .NET 8?

[anatawa12]

In current VPM CLI and vpm-resplver, it looks System.Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.LocalApplicationData) is used for base path of settings.json and other VCC and VPM related files.

However, .NET 6 is being dead and .NET 8 is here, and I think VPM CLI will need to move to .NET 8 soon. However, in .NET 8, System.Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.LocalApplicationData) will return other directory on macOS. This will cause compatibility problem in my tool and future VPM so I opened this issue.

As a command-line tools, it's common to use $XDG_DATA_HOME or $HOME/.local/share on macOS and Unity mono still returns them for Environment.GetFolderPath, and, I think it's better to use $XDG_DATA_HOME on macOS.

For more information about breaking changes in .NET 8, please refer https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/compatibility/core-libraries/8.0/getfolderpath-unix and dotnet/runtime#68610

[orels1]

Thank you for flagging that. I added this to our notes on the .NET 8 upgrade. We will most likely maintain the current $HOME/.local/share behavior.

I will keep this thread updated with details as I have them

[orels1]

Confirming that the plan is to maintain $HOME/.local/share on macOS

[orels1]

VCC and VCC CLI are moving to .NET 6 with VCC 2.4.0 (next major release) which will maintain the existing path.

[orels1]

The CLI pre-release using .NET 8 and pathing fix is available now

https://www.nuget.org/packages/VRChat.VPM.CLI#versions-body-tab

dotnet tool install -g VRChat.VPM.CLI --version 0.1.28-beta.1

If everything goes well - this should go live in the near future

[anatawa12]

It looks vpm cli 0.1.28-beta.1 is using './$HOME/.local/share/VRChatCreatorCompanion/settings.json' relative to working directory of vpm cli instead of .local/share/VRChatCreatorCompanion/settings.json relative to user home directory, which is stored in HOME environment variable.

In general, *nix platform can use any character in file system entry name, so when you request OS to access directory named $HOME, OS simply checks file system entry named $HOME in the current working directory. Expanding environment variable (or others) is our responsibility and we have to expand environment variable.

Also I found that VPM Cli is using $HOME/.local/share directory, but we should try XDG_DATA_HOME before trying XDG_DATA_HOME. Here's example code to get correct VRChatCreatorCompanion for *nix platform including macOS and linux. (This code is my own code and putting here with CC0 license)

#nullable enable
using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

string GetVCCDirectory()
{
    if (RuntimeInformation.IsOSPlatform(OSPlatform.Windows))
    {
        // For windows platform, we use the %LOCALAPPDATA%\VRChatCreatorCompanion directory
        return Path.Combine(Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.LocalApplicationData), "VRChatCreatorCompanion");
    }
    else
    {
        // For *nix platform, we use the $XDG_DATA_HOME/VRChatCreatorCompanion directory
        var xdgDataHome = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("XDG_DATA_HOME");

        if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(xdgDataHome))
        {
            // if XDG_DATA_HOME is not set, we use the default value
            // Default value of XDG_DATA_HOME is $HOME/.local/share
            // We should use default value even if XDG_DATA_HOME is defined with empty value.
            // Please read https://specifications.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/latest/#variables
            // for more information.

            var home = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("HOME");
            if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(home)) throw new InvalidOperationException("HOME is not set");
            xdgDataHome = Path.Combine(home, ".local", "share");
        }

        return Path.Combine(xdgDataHome, "VRChatCreatorCompanion");
    }
}

[orels1]

This should be fixed in the 0.1.28-beta.2 Tested on macOS

[anatawa12]

it looks working well in 0.1.28-beta.2.