[Elecraft] K3 / W2 utility conflict

[Mike Clarke]

Hi all,

Some months ago, I posted[1] about an issue I had with k3util not
functioning correctly on Linux if $HOME/Elecraft already existed,
but $HOME/Elecraft/K3_Firmware did not.

I've just bumped into this problem again, and lost quite a bit of
time before remembering the previous issue.

The problem is this:

w2util will create $HOME/Elecraft on first run, and use it to
store downloaded firmware.  If $HOME/Elecraft already exists, it
still works fine.

k3util will create $HOME/Elecraft/K3_Firmware to store downloaded
firmware.  However, it $HOME/Elecraft already exists, k3util will
silently fall back to storing downloaded files in the current
working directory.

Therefore, if, as I just did, you run w2util on a computer that
you've never used k3util on, and then you run k3util on that
system, it will confusingly download the files to unexpected
locations.

Would it be possible to change k3util so that it prompts the user
for permission and then creates the required directories?
Silently falling back to the current working directory should
certainly never happen.

As an added bonus, how about a command-line option to allow the
user to specify the download directory automatically?  Something
like 'k3util --download-dir="..."' would be very handy.


[1] http://www.mail-archive.com/elecraft@mailman.qth.net/msg76201.html


Thanks,

-- 
Mike, M0PRL / VP8DMH