SlickEdit 14 crashes immediately after starting it

[MTisza]

I've been running slickEdit 14 for a couple month now, and I have all the updates.  Yesterday I shut down the PC without waiting for things to gracefully shutdown.  Slickedit is now crashing everytime I try to start it.  All my other programs are working fine.

Any ideas what's wrong?  Do I have to reinstall?

[jimlangrunner]

Try starting with a clean config - or rename your slickedit config folder so Slick opens a new folder.  Fastest way to see if it's config.  Beyond that, I'm not sure.  But that's where I'd start.

Okay- I forget the command line to start with a clean config.  Something like VS - sc C:\Fred

Renaming the folder is probably a little easier - in My Documents, it's "My SlickEdit Config\(Version)" 

Jim.

[chrisant]

Could be that the OS killed VS while it was updating the state file, leaving the state file in a corrupt state (i.e. VS took longer than a few seconds to exit, while lots of other apps were all frantically trying to do all their cleanup work concurrently in mere seconds, and the CPU couldn't keep up).

The clean config suggestion from jimlangrunner will probably work.

Waiting for Windows to gracefully shutdown is usually a good idea, unless it's taking a long time because a particular program is horked.

[MTisza]

Thanks guys, that worked.  I changed the name of the config folder, and it started first shot.

Is there a way to restore any of that config?  Or should I not bother.

[jimlangrunner]

Probably not easily.  You can do a diff between the newly created folder & the renamed folder.  That should tell you what files are different, though likely the one(s) with the problems are in there as well.  You could copy files individually or in batches to get (probably) most of your customizations over.  You do this at your own risk - if it's worth it.

After you do get the config the way you like, you can export / backup your config under options so that, should this happen again, you'll have most of your settings ready to pull back in should you need them.

Jim.

[ScottW, VP of Dev]

Try copying the state file from the new config to the old config. This will clobber any settings you made via options or defvars, but it should get the old config running. That will give you access to aliases and any other setting not stored in the state file. You can decide if that config or the new default config is a better starting point.

The state file is called vslick.sta and is stored in the root of your versioned config directory, ".../14.0.2/"

This illustrates the importance of backing up your config directory. You can do this manually by copying it somewhere or by using an automated backup procedure (highly recommended), that way, you could restore it from the nightly backups with minimal loss of changes.

[jimlangrunner]

Thanks @ScottW.  That's good to know.  Especially if it ever happens to me.

If I may ask, how is that different than the export settings in the Options?  Or does vslick.sta not go with the backup?  State - does that imply that the state does not go with the other settings and is instead a distinct item?  (I suppose that would make sense).

Thanks,
Jim

[ScottW, VP of Dev]

The config directory contains the totality of your configuration. The state file is essentially the running state of SlickEdit. It contains the value of all variables that have been set. There there's things like aliases. I'm not sure if those are in the state file or not. Even if they are loaded in there, you'd need the als file to edit them. 

When you do an export you will NOT get all of the things in the state file. Certainly, you get the items in the Options hierarchy. But there are many things covered by defvars or set by SlickEdit through usage that are not in the Options hierarchy. I don't think all of those are being exported. There may be things in some of the other configuration files that are not included in the export.  I can't think of an example, though. I'm told that aliases are exported. I wonder about the XML/HTML formatting schemes, though?

I think of the Options export as a convenient way to share and save items that are controlled by the Options hierarchy. But the only real protection for keeping SlickEdit working the way you like it is to backup the config directory. It's the only way to be sure.

[jimlangrunner]

That's certainly clear enough.  Thank you.
Jim

[sgartner]

The config directory contains the totality of your configuration. The state file is essentially the running state of SlickEdit. It contains the value of all variables that have been set. There there's things like aliases. I'm not sure if those are in the state file or not. Even if they are loaded in there, you'd need the als file to edit them.

It seems to follow from this statement that all I need to do to duplicate a configuration from one computer to another would be to copy this directory to the other computer.  However, this did not work.  The other computer worked exactly like the first until I closed and re-opened SE.  At that point much of the copied settings reverted to the previous settings.  The keyboard setting changes were the most obvious, because they were clearly working and then not working.

I copied the configuration again and upon running SE I looked in the settings dialog and many (if not all) of the settings were *not* listed there (though, again, they were "active" until I closed SE, so they must be cached somewhere?).  

I ended up "exporting" the keyboard settings from the first computer and importing them (as well as running from the copy of the settings directory) and that seems to work, but I don't know yet which other settings may not have "taken."  What is the proper way to copy the complete settings from one computer to another?

Thanks,

[ScottW, VP of Dev]

As previously stated, the config directory contains all of your settings; however, some of those may contain paths. So, unless your two computers are set up identically, copying the config directory from one computer to another may not work, as you have seen.

Using the import/export capability is the safest way to migrate settings from one computer to another. There may be some settings that are not handled with this mechanism, but I think they are almost all there (if not, indeed, all there). This feature was not set up to migrate settings from one OS to another. So, you may still have some issues if you migrate settings from Windows to Linux, for example.

[sgartner]

As previously stated, the config directory contains all of your settings; however, some of those may contain paths. So, unless your two computers are set up identically, copying the config directory from one computer to another may not work, as you have seen.

Using the import/export capability is the safest way to migrate settings from one computer to another. There may be some settings that are not handled with this mechanism, but I think they are almost all there (if not, indeed, all there). This feature was not set up to migrate settings from one OS to another. So, you may still have some issues if you migrate settings from Windows to Linux, for example.

Scott, thanks for the reply.  You talk about paths, but why would that affect keyboard settings?

The only import/export I see for settings is on the keyboard bindings page and only exports keyboard bindings (in fact, it only exports the keyboard bindings that were changed from the "emulation" chosen), so clearly what it exports is nothing close to "almost all there".  There must be  another import/export of general settings that I'm missing?  Can you point me to that?

Also, for any comprehensive export to work it would also have to export any macros that are referenced by keyboard settings, etc. so it seems like it would really have to copy the entire config anyway.

What am I missing?

Scott

[ScottW, VP of Dev]

I'm not saying that paths are involved in keyboard settings. My post is about settings in general.

There is a comprehensive import/export capability on the Tools > Options screen. The last item in the list is called "Export/Import Options" (see attachment). This allows you to export all (most?) of your settings. It does a great job on all of the items contained in the Options hierarchy. But there are other options controlled by variables that are not exposed in the GUI, and I don't think those are exported. Also, as you noted, we do not copy your custom macros.

[sgartner]

There is a comprehensive import/export capability on the Tools > Options screen. The last item in the list is called "Export/Import Options" (see attachment). This allows you to export all (most?) of your settings. It does a great job on all of the items contained in the Options hierarchy. But there are other options controlled by variables that are not exposed in the GUI, and I don't think those are exported. Also, as you noted, we do not copy your custom macros.

Wow, how did I miss that?  I'll test it, thanks!