This document covers environment variable substition.
Many of the values in launcher.ini are subject to environment variable substitions. This works by taking the input string and parsing environment variables, so that a chunk like %TEMP% will become something like C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\Temp. To make this more useful in making applications portable, a number of extra environment variables are provided. This document is primarily here to describe those values.
For the purposes of this page, the portable app in question is installed to X:\PortableApps\AppNamePortable and last ran from the path W:\Apps\AppNamePortable (the use of a different path is explained below).
These values can be used in any values marked “Environment variable substitions apply.”. Other environment variables can also be used, but any directory variables will not have the alternative forms provided for these specific variables.
These are a few variables for drive letter updating. In Live mode, these are the location of the portable device from which the application was run, not the application or data directory if [LiveMode]:CopyApp is set.
Note that you cannot guarrantee the case that this variable will be in. It may be lower or upper case.
The drive letter from which the portable app is running, without a colon. Useful with [FileWriteN] find and replace where the colon is not included in the path, e.g. file:////%PAL:DriveLetter%/ for file:////X/ or even %PAL:DriveLetter%\:/ for X\:/.
If you wish your app to support UNC paths (see [Launch]:SupportsUNC), you should not use this. For UNC paths, this will be \ (the first letter of the UNC path). Instead, you should figure out something probably in the custom code or ask for help.
Example: X
The drive letter from which the portable app ran last. Useful with [FileWriteN] find and replace where the colon is not included in the path, e.g. file:////%PAL:LastDriveLetter%/ for file:////X/ or even %PAL:LastDriveLetter%\:/ for X\:/.
See above for comments on UNC paths.
Example: W
Each variable fitting into this category gets several extra environment variables generated for it, for different forms they may be needed. For example, when dealing directly with Windows paths must be separated by a backslash (\), while with various other applications, for example applications ported from Linux, a forward slash (/) is often needed, or even a double backslash (\\), or something else.
One complex example is with Java applications that use java.util.prefs to store their settings; java.util.prefs stores settings in the registry, but its path storage mechanism is unusual. The path gets stored with a forward slash as the separator, and then all characters other than a colon and lower-case letters are escaped with a slash (including the path separator), so that a Windows path like X:\PortableApps\AppNamePortable will become /X:///Portable/Apps///App/Name/Portable.
Each environment variable listed in this section is currently available in four forms. For the environment variable listed as VARIABLE, here are the environment variables which will be available:
So, for the environment variable PAL:AppDir with the value X:\PortableApps\AppNamePortable\App, the following environment variables will be available:
Now on to the environment variables themselves.
The path to the App directory which contains the portable app.
When Live mode is not enabled, this will be X:\PortableApps\AppNamePortable\App and when Live mode is enabled it will be %TEMP%\AppNamePortableLive\App unless [LiveMode]:CopyApp is set to false.
The path to the Data directory which contains the portable app’s data.
When Live mode is not enabled, this will be X:\PortableApps\AppNamePortable\Data and when Live mode is enabled it will be %TEMP%\AppNamePortableLive\Data.
When Java is found, this is set to the location where it was found, not including the “bin” directory or a filename like “javaw.exe”. This will be the Java Portable directory, e.g. X:\PortableApps\CommonFiles\Java, or some local installation, e.g. C:\Program Files\Java.
This variable is only available with [Activate]:Java set to find or require, but if it is find, the path it is set to may not exist (for require the launcher will abort if Java is not found).
The PortableApps.com Documents directory, normally X:\Documents. There is no guarrantee that this directory will exist.
The PortableApps.com Pictures directory, normally X:\Documents\Pictures. There is no guarrantee that this directory will exist.
The PortableApps.com Music directory, normally X:\Documents\Music. There is no guarrantee that this directory will exist.
The PortableApps.com Videos directory, normally X:\Documents\Videos. There is no guarrantee that this directory will exist.
The PortableApps.com PortableApps directory, normally X:\PortableApps. To be exact, this is the parent directory of the portable app package.
The base of the PortableApps.com directory hierachy, where PAL:PortableAppsDir and PortableApps.comDocuments are usually at.
The value of PAL:PortableAppsBaseDir from the previous run.
A local variable for copying to and from, e.g. C:\Documents and Settings\Username on XP and 2000, C:\Users\Username on Vista.
A local variable for copying to and from, e.g. C:\Documents and Settings\All Users on XP and 2000, C:\ProgramData on Vista.
Most apps will need to use ALLUSERSAPPDATA instead of this because it includes the “Application Data” part on the end for Windows 2000 and XP.
A local variable for copying to and from, e.g. C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data on XP and 2000, C:\ProgramData on Vista.
This variable does not exist in Windows itself and is added by the PortableApps.com Launcher. The difference between it and ALLUSERSPROFILE above is that on Windows 2000 and XP it includes “Application Data” at the end. This is how it is normally used.
New in version 2.1.
A local variable for copying to and from, e.g. C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Local Settings\Application Data on XP and 2000, C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local on Vista.
A local variable for copying to and from, e.g. C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Application Data on XP and 2000, C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming on Vista.
A local variable for copying to and from, e.g. C:\Documents and Settings\Username\My Documents on XP and 2000, C:\Users\Username\Documents on Vista.
The temporary directory which the application will be given. If a contained temporary directory is assigned, this will be the assigned one.
For dealing with moving packages, it’s often handy to be able to update a path without including the drive letter. Like the directory variables above, these variables get the additional environment variables generated for them in different forms.
As with drive variables, the case of these variables cannot be guarranteed. They may be lower or upper case.
The path, minus the drive letter and colon, from which the portable app is running.
Example: \PortableApps\AppNamePortable
The path, minus the drive letter and colon, from which the portable app ran last.
The first time a portable app is run, this will be the same as PAL:PackagePartialDir above. Thus in its normal use case as part of the Find value in a [FileWriteN] section, it will be the same as the Replace value and result in the replacement being skipped.
Example: \Apps\AppNamePortable
These variables are for language switching. Particularly of interest is %PAL:LanguageCustom%.
A full table of all the values is available in Language variable values.
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