How to install plugins/scripts in folders?

[Krikor]

Hi there!

I always used the installation of my plugins/scripts creating a custom folder (MyPlugins) in C:\Gimp-2.10.32_Portable_32-64bit-Win\Preferences\plug-ins\MyPlugins and inside it I insert the plugins; as the image below:
   
Is there any mandatory way to install plugins / scripts in folders?
Inside folders? Names without spaces?

What is the official way to add plugins/scripts to the directory in Preferences?

Note, that the way I've done it (see image above) the plugins/scripts work.

However, I'm having problems with the new version 2.10.32 Samj's Portable, and apparently the problem seems to go away when I remove my folders that contain my plugins and scripts (with all their contents).

Thanks.

[rich2005]

Nothing mandatory for Gimp 2.10 Scripts in the scripts folder Plugins go in the plugins folder

Plugins can go in a folder with the same name as the plugin Example Canny.exe in a folder Canny
In my opinion this does not make much sense for single file plugins. The popular resynthesizer.exe and resynthesizer-gui.exe each need their own folders.

You can see examples of plugin-in-folder in the system C:\Program Files\GIMP 2\lib\gimp\2.0\plug-ins

It does make more sense if the plugin has dependencies, for example the gmic plugin which has about 60 .dll dependencies + a couple of sub-folders.

The plugin-in-folder will be mandatory in Gimp 3

Quote:..However, I'm having problems with the new version 2.10.32 Samj's Portable, and apparently the problem seems to go away when I remove my folders that contain my plugins and scripts (with all their contents).

Do you need to add the path to these in the new Gimp Edit -> Preferences -> Folders ? It might be a portable drive path issue.

[Krikor]

(06-28-2022, 05:09 PM)rich2005 Wrote: Nothing mandatory for Gimp 2.10  Scripts in the scripts folder Plugins go in the plugins folder

Plugins can go in a folder with the same name as the plugin Example Canny.exe in a folder Canny
In my opinion this does not make much sense for single file plugins. The popular resynthesizer.exe and resynthesizer-gui.exe each need their own folders.

You can see examples of plugin-in-folder in the system C:\Program Files\GIMP 2\lib\gimp\2.0\plug-ins

It does make more sense if the plugin has dependencies, for example the gmic plugin which has about 60 .dll dependencies + a couple of sub-folders.

The plugin-in-folder will be mandatory in Gimp 3

Quote:..However, I'm having problems with the new version 2.10.32 Samj's Portable, and apparently the problem seems to go away when I remove my folders that contain my plugins and scripts (with all their contents).

Do you need to add the path to these in the new Gimp Edit -> Preferences -> Folders ? It might be a portable drive path issue.

Well I'm still trying to find a solution to the problem I commented on https://www.gimp-forum.net/Thread-Flicke...6#pid29956

Samj provided me with a .bat to make it easier to update my version 2.10.28 to version 2.10.32. But the problem persisted. Then she/he gave me another instruction:

Quote:"The problem seems simple to solve : Delete one by one the additions you have made in \Preferences" - Samj

This was toilful, as with each removal I had to reopen Gimp and do the verification test.

I noticed some difference when I removed the plugins and scripts personal folders. So I thought I might be installing these files incorrectly.

However, the biggest difference is when I run Gimp via gimp.exe and not via gimp_eng.exe.

Running Gimp through gimp.exe the whole problem disappears.

https://imgur.com/iQQRApO   -   https://i.imgur.com/iQQRApO.mp4

https://imgur.com/BIZXyec   -   https://i.imgur.com/BIZXyec.mp4

https://imgur.com/jK2LojF   -  https://i.imgur.com/jK2LojF.mp4

[PixLab]

Did you tried to rename those 2 folders (2.10 and 2.0 by something like "2.10.bak"), then start your preferred GIMP first, GIMP will recreate them (if problem persist remove the newly 2.10 and 2.0 created with GIMP and name back your 2 folders
(I don't know where on windows they are, but here on Linux I underlined them with blue
   

[Krikor]

(06-29-2022, 02:54 AM)PixLab Wrote: Did you tried to rename those 2 folders (2.10 and 2.0 by something like "2.10.bak"), then start your preferred GIMP first, GIMP will recreate them (if problem persist remove the newly 2.10 and 2.0 created with GIMP and name back your 2 folders
(I don't know where on windows they are, but here on Linux I underlined them with blue

In the Samj's Portable version the paths are different.
   
As per your suggestion:
I didn't change the share/gimp/2.0 folder, simply because I didn't change that folder, it is 100% created by the Gimp installation.

But... I renamed the Preferences folder (I believe it is the equivalent of the 2.10 folder in your image) to Preferences.bak

When opening Gimp, the problem really disappeared! (But now I'm out of plugins, scripts, fonts, etc)

I renamed the current Preferences folder to Preferences.bak002 and the Preferences.bak to Preferences (back to where I started), and the problem came up again.

What I want to do now is:
1- Change the folder names again;
2- Gradually add files from the Preferences.bak folder to the Preferences folder (new) and testing the behavior of Gimp with each new addition.

Maybe then I'll find what's causing the problem.

Thank you very much Patrice!

[PixLab]

(06-29-2022, 01:07 PM)Krikor Wrote: What I want to do now is:
1- Change the folder names again;
2- Gradually add files from the Preferences.bak folder to the Preferences folder (new) and testing the behavior of Gimp with each new addition.

Maybe then I'll find what's causing the problem.

Thank you very much Patrice!

You can go faster by adding full folder by full folder, then you got a problem when just adding a folder, remove that folder, and continue your tests with others folders,
Then if no more problem with others folders go back to this specific folder, the one you got problem ➤ and with this one go file by file

[rich2005]

One difficulty with samj's portable is there is no way of opening a terminal when starting with one of the launchers, but they are needed to set the Gimp environment, paths etc. No way to see error messages.

I know in the past you have moved your whole User Profile over between installations. From what I see, on first run of Gimp it adds to the Preferences folder your specific settings - those xxxrc files. In particular pluginrc which holds the plugin registrations.
samj provides a clean.bat which removes all those xxxrc files but sometimes deleting pluginrc, start Gimp and let Gimp re-register your plugins helps. https://i.imgur.com/M9BVxD4.jpg

It might be time to reset your additional plugins and scripts. I do not see why anything that works in Gimp 2.10.30 should not work in Gimp 2.10.32 Adding one plugin at a time is very safe but should not be necessary.

A simple set-up, an 'extras' folder with sub-folders for plugins and scripts placed in the Preferences tree and added to the folders paths must work (mustn't it ?) https://i.imgur.com/xI4t7A7.jpg Filled a plugins folder with old and dubious plugins, they work no problem.

One problem might be that sync application you started using, might scramble things. I am a great believer in having 'extra' resorce folders in a more convenient place but when it comes moving plugins / scripts in and out, I do go back to a two-window file manager.

Looking at your animations, I have know idea why the layer dock refreshes slowly. Icons are large, is it the same with small icons ?

[PixLab]

(06-29-2022, 02:53 PM)rich2005 Wrote: Looking at your animations, I have know idea why the layer dock refreshes slowly. Icons are large, is it the same with small icons ?

Out of curiosity I did made a try and put my icons in "Gigantic", it's still smooth, no hick-ups.
https://imgur.com/a/6wd7rjB or https://i.imgur.com/rqhyuCe.mp4

[Krikor]

(06-29-2022, 02:53 PM)rich2005 Wrote: One difficulty with samj's portable is there is no way of opening a terminal when starting with one of the launchers, but they are needed to set the Gimp environment, paths etc. No way to see error messages.

I know in the past you have moved your whole User Profile over between installations. From what I see, on first run of Gimp it adds to the Preferences folder your specific settings - those xxxrc files. In particular pluginrc which holds the plugin registrations.
samj provides a clean.bat which removes all those xxxrc files but sometimes deleting pluginrc, start Gimp and let Gimp re-register your plugins helps. https://i.imgur.com/M9BVxD4.jpg

I initially ran Gimp with the files in the Preferences folder without any personal modifications.

So I slowly made the changes.
I only changed the templaterc, controllerrc and sessionrc files. Other files/folders were kept unchanged.
At this point, after the above modifications, no issues were found.

So I started adding content to the folders brushes, brushes_storage, curves, dynamics, filters, fonts, fonts_storage, gradients, gradients_storage, MyPaintBrushes, palettes, palettes_storage, patterns, patterns_storage.
No problem after making the above changes.

When I added the contents of the plug-ins folder, the problem initially appeared, and in the Preferences folder two .svg files were created that seemed to contain some information with an error.

I deleted these two files, deleted the entire contents of the plug-ins folder, ran Gimp and had no problems.

However, I just repeated the previous operation, re-adding the contents of the plugins folder, and this time, strangely, I didn't notice the problem. The two .svg files that were created before were not generated either. * These .svg files had already appeared in previous tests and were always deleted *

There were some folders that were created when I unzipped the original .7z from Gimp, but were not created when I removed the Preferences folder and ran Gimp. So I added these new folders:
file-raw, ui, tags, menus, images, icons.

➤ ➤ ➤➤ However, the problem clearly manifested itself after adding the contents of the scripts folder.

I have no idea why since in my version 2.10.28 I use exactly the same files.

(06-29-2022, 02:53 PM)rich2005 Wrote: It might be time to reset your additional plugins and scripts. I do not see why anything that works in Gimp 2.10.30 should not work in Gimp 2.10.32 Adding one plugin at a time is very safe but should not be necessary.

A simple set-up, an 'extras' folder with sub-folders for plugins and scripts placed in the Preferences tree and added to the folders paths must work (mustn't it ?)  https://i.imgur.com/xI4t7A7.jpg  Filled a plugins folder with old and dubious plugins, they work no problem.

In fact, since the last time you suggested me how to organize my installation I already do that. In addition to adding the files inside the Preferences folder (which I didn't do before), I also use an 'Extra' folder that I named PluginUso.
   

(06-29-2022, 02:53 PM)rich2005 Wrote: One problem might be that sync application you started using, might scramble things. I am a great believer in having 'extra' resorce folders in a more convenient place but when it comes moving plugins / scripts in and out, I do go back to a two-window file manager.

Looking at your animations, I have know idea why the layer dock refreshes slowly. Icons are large, is it the same with small icons ?

I totally agree. I tried to speed it up and used that Sync, even though I had a few hours between when I downloaded it and when I started using it.
But this time, I'm doing it manually, transferring the files from one window to the other.

It was one of my first doubts. So I checked, and the size of the preview used is indifferent; enourmous, Giant, or the smallest of them all exhibited the same slowness.

(06-29-2022, 02:34 PM)PixLab Wrote: You can go faster by adding full folder by full folder, then you got a problem when just adding a folder, remove that folder, and continue your tests with others folders,
Then if no more problem with others folders go back to this specific folder, the one you got problem ➤ and with this one go file by file

It's what I've done. I arrived in the scripts folder.
Almost 100 files.
I will divide them into groups of 10 and do the verification.


Thank you for your help guys!