Automatic Path Management
The IDL Workbench can — optionally — manage a portion of the IDL !PATH system variable for you, based on the state of the projects in your workspace. The rule followed by the IDL Workbench is simple: if you choose to let the workbench manage a project's status on the path, it will add the project directory to the !PATH system variable when the project is open, and remove it when the project is closed. Specifically, for managed projects:
- If the managed project is open, the IDL Workbench will ensure that the project directory (including any subdirectories) is included in the list of directories specified by the !PATH system variable. If the directory is not present in !PATH, it will be added at the end of the path specification.
- If the managed project is closed, the IDL Workbench will remove the project directory from the list of directories specified by the !PATH system variable unless the project directory is also specified by the IDL_PATH preference.
Note
Prior to the IDL Workbench 7.0.3 update, entries for managed projects were added to the IDL_PATH preference rather than to the !PATH system variable.
Selecting Automatic Path Management
To change the automatic path management setting for a project, open the IDL Project Properties page of the Project Properties dialog and check or uncheck the Update IDL path when project is opened or closed checkbox:
(Select a project in the Project Explorer view and click here to display the Project Properties dialog.)
You select the initial value for this property when creating a project using the New IDL Project wizard.
Note
Checking or unchecking the checkbox for an existing project and clicking either Apply or OK will update the value of !PATH as described above.
When is the Path Updated?
If the Update IDL path when project is opened or closed property is set, the !PATH system variable is updated when any of the following occurs:
Sources for the Initial Value of IDL_PATH
Most IDL system preferences can take their values from an environment variable. If you use the IDL_PATH environment variable to supply the initial value of the IDL_PATH preference (and thus of the !PATH system variable), changes you make to the path preference during an IDL session will not be used the next time IDL starts.
Similarly, you can specify an initial value for most IDL system preferences when invoking IDL at the command line, via the -pref command line switch or by specifying the value of the preference itself. A preference value specified at the command line overrides values stored in your user preference and values specified in environment variables.
To understand how IDL determines the initial value for a preference, see IDL System Preferences.
