Bug 19684 – DMD 2.085.0-beta.1: DMD cannot find dmd.conf if invoked via symlink (OSX)

DMD cannot find its dmd.conf file when it is invoked via a symlink. The dmd.conf file is in the same directory as the dmd executable. If DMD is invoked via an absolute path then it finds the dmd.conf file. This is a change in behavior from 2.084.0. I've tried this only on OSX. Further explanation: I install DMD by retrieving the tar.xz file and unpacking it. Then I symlink the executable to ~/bin, which is in my path. This allows me to have multiple dmd versions installed simultaneously. As an example, I symlinked: ~/bin/dmd -> ~/devtools/dmd2-2.085.0-beta.1/osx/bin/dmd Now compiling a hello world app results in the following: ------------------ $ dmd helloworld.d Error: cannot find source code for runtime library file 'object.d' dmd might not be correctly installed. Run 'dmd -man' for installation instructions. config file: /etc/dmd.conf Specify path to file 'object.d' with -I switch ------------------ It's not an issue with PATH or home directory expansion. Invoking via an absolute path to the ~/bin/dmd symlink results in the same behavior. However, using a direct path to the executable with no symlinks works fine: ------------------ $ ~/devtools/dmd2-2.085.0-beta.1/osx/bin/dmd helloworld.d $ ./helloworld Hello World! ------------------ I looked through recent PRs and saw one candidate: https://github.com/dlang/dmd/pull/9261.

(In reply to Jon Degenhardt from comment #0) > This allows me to have multiple dmd versions installed simultaneously. I highly recommend using DVM [1] to install multiple versions of DMD. It allows to use different versions in different terminal sessions at the same time. It's also cross-platform. [1] https://github.com/jacob-carlborg/dvm

(In reply to Jacob Carlborg from comment #1) > (In reply to Jon Degenhardt from comment #0) > > This allows me to have multiple dmd versions installed simultaneously. > > I highly recommend using DVM [1] to install multiple versions of DMD. It > allows to use different versions in different terminal sessions at the same > time. It's also cross-platform. > > [1] https://github.com/jacob-carlborg/dvm FWIW alternatively the official install script also supports multiple versions out of the box: https://dlang.org/install

Jacob, Seb - Thanks for the info. I was unaware of these capabilities. I chose the approach I used as an alternative to the OS X dmg-based installer (installs to a system wide location.) That these facilities is exist is orthogonal to the bug though. dmd has for quite a while been able to find files in its bin directory, even if launched through a symlink.

Ian has added some relevant info to DMD PR 9261: https://github.com/dlang/dmd/pull/9261

Fixed by PR 9382, https://github.com/dlang/dmd/pull/9382. This was incorporated into the updated 2.085 beta release.