On 5/14/21 6:31 PM, Bald Eagle wrote:
> William F Pokorny <ano### [at] anonymousorg> wrote:
> 
>>> The 'cannot fork' stuff usually happens when a unix/linux system has run
>>> out of resources to start another process. Lack of memory/swap space,
>>> /tmp, /var - maybe. There are sometimes limits on the number of
>>> processes in place, but this in my experience is not all that common.
>>>
>>> For starters you could try running the 'df' command and look at disk
>>> usage. The command 'free -m' can be useful too.
>
>> - What was your entire command line with flags & ini ?
> 
> Er, for what?

No idea. I'm fishing for cause. :-)

The 'no output at all' you now see makes as little sense to me - as a 
likely problem - as did the unable to fork message.

The cannot create state file is what I got too - with 'povr' - when 
trying reproduce your fork issue last night and not having permissions 
to write to the current directory.

As I expect you know by now, directories installed system wide as 
packages or with 'make install' / 'sudo make install' almost always have 
an owner of root. Further they are read only except for the owner. Those 
permissions should be left as is to prevent accidental corruption. 
Normal users - even those able to play as 'root' should work elsewhere 
in directories and with files they do own.

The povr script ships in the root build directory but must be modified 
and installed somewhere in your PATH. If you type the command:

'which povr'

what do you see?

I see: /home/pokorny/bin/povr because I copied the povr script to my 
/home/pokorny/bin directory - which is part of my PATH environment 
variable by default. Plus, I updated the contents of 'povr' to point to 
the build location directory. You can point the 'povr' script to an 
install directory too, if you configured with 
--prefix=<eventual_install_dir> before building and after a successful 
'make install'.

'echo $PATH'

shows the contents of the search path used for executable commands.

You can execute commands with the full path assuming the permissions are 
set for an executable. For example, no matter the current directory 
permissions, I can type:

'/home/pokorny/bin/povr --version'

and see in the output:
...
POV-Ray (povr) 3.8.0-x.povr_19812865.unofficial
This is an unofficial version compiled by: wfp
...

Further, such a full path command should run in any directory no matter 
permissions so long as the permission bits are set correctly. When I use 
the command:

ls -lt /home/pokorny/bin/povr

I see:

-rwxr-xr-x 1 pokorny pokorny 806 May 14 17:53 /home/pokorny/bin/pov

Let's start the debugging with the commands above.

> 
...
> 

Aside: As a general aim I'm thinking most unix/linux users should 
install packages maintained for their OS distributions.

For those wanting to play with code branches, a goal of the povr branch 
is to NOT use or need 'root' or 'admin' authority at all. Further, to be 
able to run as many versions side by side as they wish in local, 
smallish, directories without cross interactions - something long an 
issue. There are tentative code changes in the povr branch to support 
this aim. For more see, for example:

https://github.com/POV-Ray/povray/issues/374

The povr script as shipped is a template, and for users in the playpen, 
like me, I have many such scripts pointing to different versions. Where 
'povr' as a command is how I execute my most current code and compile.

Bill P.

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On 5/15/21 7:48 AM, William F Pokorny wrote:
> '/home/pokorny/bin/povr --version'

Grumble... No idea why I was adding single quotes to many of the 
commands. Run the commands without them. Old brain glitching. :-(

Bill P.

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hi,

William F Pokorny <ano### [at] anonymousorg> wrote:
> ...
> The cannot create state file is what I got too - with 'povr' - when
> trying reproduce your fork issue last night and not having permissions
> to write to the current directory.

had never seen a cannot create file error until reading this, then got one when
preparing to try TdG's granite macro.  :-)  turns out, having a (now)
non-existing directory in the .ini file "works" too.


regards, jr.

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William F Pokorny <ano### [at] anonymousorg> wrote:

> Let's start the debugging with the commands above.


> Bill P.

bald@Alienware ~/povray38/scenes/objects $ which povr
/home/bald/bin/povr

bald@Alienware ~/povray38/scenes/objects $ echo $PATH
/home/bald/bin:/home/bald/.local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local
/games:/snap/bin

bald@Alienware ~/povray38/scenes/objects $ /home/bald/bin/povr --version

bald@Alienware ~/povray38/scenes/objects $ ls -lt /home/bald/bin/povr
lrwxrwxrwx 1 bald bald 50 May 14 15:37 /home/bald/bin/povr ->
/home/povray/povray-3.8.0-x.povr_b0bcf6c0/bin/povr

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On 5/15/21 1:05 PM, Bald Eagle wrote:
> William F Pokorny <ano### [at] anonymousorg> wrote:
> 
>> Let's start the debugging with the commands above.
> 
> 
>> Bill P.
> 
> bald@Alienware ~/povray38/scenes/objects $ which povr
> /home/bald/bin/povr
> 
> bald@Alienware ~/povray38/scenes/objects $ echo $PATH
>
/home/bald/bin:/home/bald/.local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local
> /games:/snap/bin
> 
> bald@Alienware ~/povray38/scenes/objects $ /home/bald/bin/povr --version
> 
> bald@Alienware ~/povray38/scenes/objects $ ls -lt /home/bald/bin/povr
> lrwxrwxrwx 1 bald bald 50 May 14 15:37 /home/bald/bin/povr ->
> /home/povray/povray-3.8.0-x.povr_b0bcf6c0/bin/povr
> 
> 
Thanks.

OK, so it looks like you established a symbolic link from

/home/povray/povray-3.8.0-x.povr_b0bcf6c0/bin/povr

to:

/home/bald/bin/povr

There isnt' a bin directory shipped with
povray-3.8.0-x.povr_b0bcf6c0 so guessing you created it and the povr 
script/command within the directory?

---
I've spent some time trying to reproduce the null result and I can 
indeed do it if the file:

/home/povray/povray-3.8.0-x.povr_b0bcf6c0/bin/povr

is empty, but, the read and execute bits are set true. The command then 
just does nothing. So, a guess would be the file is empty - or just does 
nothing.

To run the in-place compiled code, that link target file should contain 
something like:

#!/bin/sh

#...

COMPILEDIR=/tmp/povray-3.8.0-x.povr_b0bcf6c0
unset POVINI
export POVINC=${COMPILEDIR}/include
${COMPILEDIR}/unix/povray $@

#...

---
Something else which could be tried if you think the contents of the 
file look OK, is to point your bin directory link at say the 'ls' 
command. My 'which ls' returns /bin/ls. So

ln -fs /bin/ls /home/bald/bin/povr

Then run again:

/home/bald/bin/povr --version

It should be it returns the ls command version. This would be a sanity 
test that nothing otherwise off with system sym links or something.

Bill P.

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hi,

William F Pokorny <ano### [at] anonymousorg> wrote:
> ...
>> /home/povray/povray-3.8.0-x.povr_b0bcf6c0/bin/povr
> There isnt' a bin directory shipped with
> povray-3.8.0-x.povr_b0bcf6c0 so guessing you created it and the povr
> script/command within the directory?

just chiming in on this point.  the script I provided installed povr, as a
package, in '/home/povray/povray-3.8.0-x.povr_b0bcf6c0/'.  (installed and owned
by "regular user" BE)


regards, jr.

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On 5/15/21 3:43 PM, jr wrote:
> hi,
> 
> William F Pokorny <ano### [at] anonymousorg> wrote:
>> ...
>>> /home/povray/povray-3.8.0-x.povr_b0bcf6c0/bin/povr
>> There isnt' a bin directory shipped with
>> povray-3.8.0-x.povr_b0bcf6c0 so guessing you created it and the povr
>> script/command within the directory?
> 
> just chiming in on this point.  the script I provided installed povr, as a
> package, in '/home/povray/povray-3.8.0-x.povr_b0bcf6c0/'.  (installed and owned
> by "regular user" BE)
> 
> 
Ah, OK. Then my guess is the sym link should be to the file:

/home/povray/povray-3.8.0-x.povr_b0bcf6c0/bin/povray

and that Bill can probably run

/home/povray/povray-3.8.0-x.povr_b0bcf6c0/bin/povray --version

In other words, he isn't really using the 'povr' wrapper script?

---
...I'm left, though, not understanding why he isn't getting a "command 
not found" message if the file:

/home/povray/povray-3.8.0-x.povr_b0bcf6c0/bin/povr

doesn't really exist on his system...

Bill P.

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hi,

William F Pokorny <ano### [at] anonymousorg> wrote:
> ...
> ...I'm left, though, not understanding why he isn't getting a "command
> not found" message if the file:
>
> /home/povray/povray-3.8.0-x.povr_b0bcf6c0/bin/povr
>
> doesn't really exist on his system...

agree that the executable should run invoked that way.  will not "butt in"
further, but, as I understand, the symlink in ~/bin points to a bona fide 'povr'
script.  (which only serves to deepen the mystery :-()


regards, jr.

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On 5/15/21 5:08 PM, jr wrote:
> hi,
> 
> William F Pokorny <ano### [at] anonymousorg> wrote:
>> ...
>> ...I'm left, though, not understanding why he isn't getting a "command
>> not found" message if the file:
>>
>> /home/povray/povray-3.8.0-x.povr_b0bcf6c0/bin/povr
>>
>> doesn't really exist on his system...
> 
> agree that the executable should run invoked that way.  will not "butt in"
> further, but, as I understand, the symlink in ~/bin points to a bona fide 'povr'
> script.  (which only serves to deepen the mystery :-()
> 
Do please speak up if you think of more, I'm reasonably lost as to what 
might be up. :-)

Bill P.

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Sorry for the delay.

Seems that somehow the povr script got deleted but the file was still there.


I redownloaded the file and edited it to read:

#!/bin/sh
INSTALLDIR=/home/povray/povray-3.8.0-x.povr_b0bcf6c0
export POVINC=${INSTALLDIR}/share/povray-3.8/include
#export POVINI=${INSTALLDIR}/etc/povray/3.8/povray.ini
unset POVINI
${INSTALLDIR}/bin/povray $@
exit $?

Seems to render the blob scene fine now.

Not sure how THAT happened.

Thanks for all the suggestions - that helped track down the issue.

Maybe I will do some more fine tuning on this tomorrow.

It's always something ridiculous.

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