Unable to change choosenim directory

[Domkeykong]

Description

cannot change choosenim directory.
It would be nice if we could set the choosenim directory in a config file too, like nimbleDir.

Nim Version

2.2.0
devel@96d6eee9bc33c22defb980fc0953c8e55f363ab2

Current Output

nim produces:

     Error: getAppFilename failed. (Error was: Unable to read /home/christian/.choosenim/current. (Error was: No installation has been chosen. (File missing: /home/christian/.choosenim/current)))
      Info: If unexpected, please report this error to https://github.com/nim-lang/choosenim

nim --choosenimDir:$HOME/.local/share/choosenim/ produces:

command line(1, 2) Error: invalid command line option: '--choosenimDir'

Expected Output

Nim Compiler Version 2.2.0 [Linux: amd64]
Compiled at 2024-10-02
Copyright (c) 2006-2024 by Andreas Rumpf
...

Known Workarounds

calling $HOME/.local/share/choosenim/toolchains/nim-2.2.0/bin/nim directly

Additional Information

No response

[metagn]

The Nim compiler doesn't have any special behavior for choosenim at all. What are you trying to accomplish?

calling $HOME/.local/share/choosenim/toolchains/nim-2.2.0/bin/nim directly

Maybe you have another installation of nim that is in your path instead of the choosenim installation?

[peppergrayxyz]

I'm facing the same issue. There is an inconstancy between choosenim and the rest of the toolchain.

You can install and initialize choosenim to an arbitrary location:

$ choosenim --choosenimDir:$nimpath/my-choosenim --nimbleDir:$nimpath/my-nimbledir stable
$ export PATH=$nimpath/my-nimbledir/bin:$PATH

but this directory is meanlingsless for the rest of the tools and there seems to be no way to tell them:

$ nim
     Error: getAppFilename failed. (Error was: Unable to read /home/pepper/.choosenim/current. (Error was: No installation has been chosen. (File missing: /home/pepper/.choosenim/current)))
      Info: If unexpected, please report this error to https://github.com/nim-lang/choosenim

They are always looking in ~/.choosenim/current

Example:

$ nimpath="/somepath/somedir"
$ mkdir -p $nimpath && cd $nimpath
$ wget -O choosenim https://github.com/nim-lang/choosenim/releases/download/v0.8.10/choosenim-0.8.10_linux_amd64 
$ chmod +x choosenim
$ ./choosenim --choosenimDir:$nimpath/my-choosenim --nimbleDir:$nimpath/my-nimbledir --firstInstall stable
Downloading Nim 2.2.0 from nim-lang.org
[##################################################] 100.0% 0kb/s
 Extracting nim-2.2.0-linux_x64.tar.xz
 Extracting nim-2.2.0-linux_x64.tar
   Building Nim 2.2.0
  Compiler: Already built
  Installed component 'nim'
  Installed component 'nimble'
  Installed component 'nimgrep'
  Installed component 'nimpretty'
  Installed component 'nimsuggest'
  Installed component 'testament'
  Installed component 'nim-gdb'
   Switched to Nim 2.2.0
$ ls
choosenim  my-choosenim  my-nimbledir
$ ./choosenim --choosenimDir:$nimpath/my-choosenim --nimbleDir:$nimpath/my-nimbledir --firstInstall show
  Selected: 2.2.0
   Channel: stable
      Path: /somepath/somedir/my-choosenim/toolchains/nim-2.2.0
$ export PATH=$nimpath/my-nimbledir/bin:$PATH 
$ nim
     Error: getAppFilename failed. (Error was: Unable to read /home/user/.choosenim/current. (Error was: No installation has been chosen. (File missing: /home/user/.choosenim/current)))
      Info: If unexpected, please report this error to https://github.com/nim-lang/choosenim
$ nimble
     Error: getAppFilename failed. (Error was: Unable to read /home/user/.choosenim/current. (Error was: No installation has been chosen. (File missing: /home/user/.choosenim/current)))
      Info: If unexpected, please report this error to https://github.com/nim-lang/choosenim

Workarrounds

Symlink in Home

createing a symlink works, but breaks isolation:

ln -s $nimpath/my-choosenim/current ~/.choosenim/current
$ nim --version
Nim Compiler Version 2.2.0 [Linux: amd64]
Compiled at 2024-10-02
Copyright (c) 2006-2024 by Andreas Rumpf

git hash: 78983f1876726a49c69d65629ab433ea1310ece1
active boot switches: -d:release

Change $HOME

If your directory is not named .choosenim create a symlink first

mkdir -p $nimpath/.choosenim
ln -s ../.choosenim/current ~/my-choosenim/current

Then create change $HOME to point to $nimpath

$ HOME=$nimpath nim --version
Nim Compiler Version 2.2.0 [Linux: amd64]
Compiled at 2024-10-02
Copyright (c) 2006-2024 by Andreas Rumpf

git hash: 78983f1876726a49c69d65629ab433ea1310ece1
active boot switches: -d:release

Goging down the rabbit whole

Upon further investigation, I couldn't really determine the source of this behavior. The string If unexpected, please report this error doesnt even show up in nim source. Checking all repos, it only shows up in the source code of choosenim.

When I build nim from source it works as expected:

$ git clone https://github.com/nim-lang/Nim.gi
$ cd nim
$ ./build-all.sh
$ bin/nim --version
bin/nim --version
Nim Compiler Version 2.3.1 [Linux: amd64]
Compiled at 2024-12-19
Copyright (c) 2006-2024 by Andreas Rumpf

active boot switches: -d:release

So there seems to be something with the way choosenime works I think.