Environment variables and exit status
Exit status
valerian exits 0 on success and 1 on any error, with the message on standard error and
nothing written for the failed step. A usage error (an unknown option, a missing required
argument) is reported by the argument parser and also exits non-zero. --help and
--version exit 0. Piping the output of a command into head ends it quietly when head exits
(fixed in issue 59; older builds
panicked with "Broken pipe"). A command stopped that way may not have written its output file.
Variables Valerian reads
| Variable | Read by | Meaning | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
VALERIAN_CATALOGUE | valerian solve, valerian photocal, valerian info | Full path of the star catalogue (.vcat). It is the first place looked at when --catalogue is not given. See The star catalogue file. | unset |
VALERIAN_GUI_CONFIG | valerian-gui | Full path of the settings file (window size and recent files). | %APPDATA%\valerian\gui.conf on Windows, else $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/valerian/gui.conf, else ~/.config/valerian/gui.conf |
A missing or damaged settings file is not an error: the defaults apply and nothing is written until something changes.
Variables for tests and developers
| Variable | Meaning |
|---|---|
VALERIAN_GPU_TESTS | software or hardware: which adapter the GPU parity tests open. |
VALERIAN_TEST_DATA, VALERIAN_TEST_OSC, VALERIAN_TEST_SOLVE | Folders of real captures for the real-data tests; the tests skip when they are unset. The data is never committed. See Building and testing. |
Variables that belong to other software
Valerian reaches the graphics card through Vulkan (Windows: DirectX 12), so the Vulkan
loader's own variables apply to it, for example VK_DRIVER_FILES to choose or hide a
driver. Tutorial 11 uses it to show the fall-backs.