It would appear that this may have gone unnoticed by the freeciv developers, but there are some things that default to an unwritable directory in Windows 10.
You aren't supposed to write to the Program Files directories while a user is running the program... only during the install process. So maybe either things should be installed elsewhere (frowned upon since at least Windows 95 or 98) or then the output files need to default to other directories. Windows does not expect programs to spit out logs, so it's not like there's a logifile folder under a user profile. Logs are supposed to be hidden behind the behemoth of Event Viewer.
But anyway, I have these files recently in my
C:\Program Files (x86)\Freeciv-2.5.4-gtk2
stderr.txt freeciv-score.log freeciv-gtk2.RPT freeciv-server.RPT
Not only do I love the ".RPT" in caps, the other ones seem a bit old skool. I know that I was troubleshooting, but these files probably should go elsewhere. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Uruiamme (talk • contribs)
- I've added Windows 10 to the vintage 2013 GNA#20738, don't hold your breath. –Dunnoob 💩 11:43, August 7, 2016 (UTC)
So this is an open bug and not fixed since 2013? That seems strange. I did notice that many savegames go to that "special" folder created by Windows (%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files (x86)\whatever), but apparently I can run some things as an Admin and still get files in the Program Files directory. The Windows compiler should at least warn of this issue... it's a Windows Vista change! Uruiamme (talk) 21:34, August 8, 2016 (UTC)
- Arguably it's no bug at all. Just two days ago I figured out how the build process for Windows actually works, it is started in …/windows/installer working in a temporary …/windows/installer/build-gtk2 (example) folder. The relevant results are merged with the relevant …/data + …/doc content in a temporary …/windows/installer/install-gtk2 folder. At that point it still has a structure suited for *NIX, …/windows/installer/install-gtk2/usr/share or similar. That's trimmed to what we get on Windows, packed by and for the NSIS installer. The enthusiasm of developers for Windows-only modifications is of course limited, if they have no Windows and therefore no clue what works. Apparently there were only three users (incl. you and me) unhappy with the effect on NT 6, maybe everybody else still uses XP or prefers the Sid Meier civ games.
- Clumsy workarounds: You can start the server before the client, that gives you a decent command line with a visible stderr. And/or you can use option --log to get at least a logfile where you can find it later (not the horrible virtual store.) And/or you can set a FREECIV_PATH covering the installed read-only data-folder, and then start Freeciv in a writable directory. The FREECIV_PATH will be renamed, but at the moment it still works. –Dunnoob 💩 18:14, August 9, 2016 (UTC)