Installing 2 versions of LO on Mac OS X 10.10.1 Yosemite

users
#1

Hello, All:

    How can I install LibreOffice 4.3.4.1 in parallel with LO 4.3.5.2 on a Mac running OS X 10.10.1 Yosemite?

    The LO solver works fine for me in LO 4.3.4.1 on a Windows 7 Fujitsu notebook. However, it fails in LO 4.3.5.2 under Windows 7 and Ubuntu Linux 14.04 LTS, dual boot on an HP Pavilion. I want to see if it will work under OS X with the older version of LO.

    Thanks,
    Spencer Graves

#2

Create a sub-folder in your Applications folder and install the second version of LibreOffice in the sub-folder.

#3

If you do that, you will use the existing user configuration profile. In
order to exclude user configuration profile effects, you can try the
following :

- download the version of LibreOffice you want to try out ;
- rename your currently installed LibreOffice app bundle to something
else, e.g. LO4352 ;
- now change your user profile configuration folder to the same name as
the just changed app bundle ;
- next, install the newly downloaded version you want to install - drag
and drop to /Applications or any other folder of your choice;
- when you now start the LibreOffice app bundle, it will create a new
fresh profile.

If you want to later use LO4352, when you start it up, it should only
use the LO4352 user configuration folder (assuming you have named them
the same). I don't thin you can have both running at the same time.

Alex

#4

Hi, Alex:

    Thanks for this. (see inline)
    

Create a sub-folder in your Applications folder and install the second
version of LibreOffice in the sub-folder.

If you do that, you will use the existing user configuration profile. In
order to exclude user configuration profile effects, you can try the
following :

- download the version of LibreOffice you want to try out ;
- rename your currently installed LibreOffice app bundle to something
else, e.g. LO4352 ;

    Done. It works (after reboot).

- now change your user profile configuration folder to the same name as
the just changed app bundle ;

    I’m confused. "https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/UserProfile” tells me to look for Tools -> Options -> LibreOffice -> Paths. I don’t see “Options” under Tools. It also tells me that for Mac OS X, I should look for "/Users/<user name>/Library/Application Support/libreoffice/4/user (LibreOffice 4)”. I found “user” under "/Users/<user name>/Library/Application Support/libreoffice/4”. However, I’m reluctant to change this.

    Thanks,
    Spencer

#5

Where did you get that idea from? The location of the user profile is solely determined by the value of the UserInstallation= line in LibreOffice.app/Contents/Resource/bootstraprc (formerly LibreOffice.app/Contents/MacOS/boostraprc; where $SYSUSERCONFIG denotes the ~/Library/Application Support/ directory). It is completely oblivious to any renaming of the LibreOffice.app.

A way to have multiple versions of LO installed independently is to hard-code different UserInstallation= values into the bootstraprcs of at least all but one installations. (These values need to be file URLs, so either keep them starting with $SYSUSERCONFIG, which expands to a file URL, or use file:///... notation.) These versions can then even be run concurrently.

#6

Hi Stephan,

If you want to later use LO4352, when you start it up, it should only
use the LO4352 user configuration folder (assuming you have named them
the same). I don't thin you can have both running at the same time.

Where did you get that idea from? The location of the user profile is

Probably because that is how it used to work.

Alex

#7

Hi :slight_smile:
If you rename the User Profile then you can always rename it back later.

Renaming just hides it from the program/suite so LibreOffice creates a
fresh new one profile populated with the default settings, configs and
all the rest.

Deleting the User Profile would also work but then if it goes wrong or
if you want to return to old the settings&configs or recover stuff
from your templates, library gallery or anything else you added to
LibreOffice then it would be tricky. So, renaming is best.

Yes,
Tools -> Options -> LibreOffice -> Paths
is only for Windows and Linux, and maybe Bsd. Mac is a bit different.

Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#8

Are you really sure that it ever worked that if you rename LibreOffice.app to Foo.app it will then locate its user profile under ~/Library/Application Data/Foo/ instead of ~/Library/Application Data/LibreOffice/? That would surprise me.

#9

If you want to later use LO4352, when you start it up, it should only
use the LO4352 user configuration folder (assuming you have named them
the same). I don't thin you can have both running at the same time.

Where did you get that idea from? The location of the user profile is

Probably because that is how it used to work.

Are you really sure that it ever worked that if you rename LibreOffice.app to Foo.app it will then locate its user profile under ~/Library/Application Data/Foo/ instead of ~/Library/Application Data/LibreOffice/? That would surprise me.

    See, “https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Installing_in_parallel/OS_X”, referenced in an earlier email from Alex in this thread: This describes “New Method” and “Old Method”. “Old Method” says, "Up to and including the 3.3.x series, the way to separate configurations on the Mac simply involved renaming your existing installation user configuration folder to the same name as the name of the LibreOffice application.” That doesn’t mean it ever worked, but that seems to be what is described under “Old Method” :wink:

    I’m still having other problems parsing the “New Method”: A first step says to “cd”, then run “mkdir -p libreoffice/builds"
in a terminal.

    Is this correct? When I “cd” then “ls”, I get the following:

Applications Documents Library Music Public
Desktop Downloads Movies Pictures

    I don’t see “libreoffice”. Or is “libreoffice” in “mkdir -p libreoffice/builds” simply a shorthand for the local LibeOffice installation directory? If that’s true, then how do I find the local LibreOffice installation directory?

    Thanks so much for all your help. Sorry for being so dense.

    Best Wishes,
    Spencer

#10

No, you had to rename the user profile /Library/Application Support/Foo
accordingly before restarting LO - this was the advice we were giving
out to users on our wiki.

Alex

#11

On Macs it is LibreOffice/Preferences/LibreOffice/Paths

#12

Hi :slight_smile:
These are unix commands so you find them much the same in Gnu&Linux
such as Ubuntu, openSuSE, RedHat, Mageia as well as in BSDs such as
FreeBSD, Mac and others.

cd = Change Directory
ls = LiSt = roughly the same as "dir" it gives a list of what is in
the folder/directory you are in

I think the cd command is a little wrong but ended up doing the right
thing. The aim was to get into the "home" folder and you started from
there anyway so when the instruction didn't give a folder to change
into you still ended up in the "home" folder. I think the instruction
was meant to be

cd ~

or

cd /home/user-name

but it doesn't matter. The command;

mkdir -p libreoffice/builds

should MaKe a new directory/folder. Actually it should create 2 new
folders. It should create a folder called "libreoffice" and inside
that create a sub-folder called "builds".

There are a lot of guides to help with unix commands but Gnu&Linux
tends to have a wider range of commands and some of them are slightly
different from the BSD ones so they just wont work in Mac. I doubt
they would cause harm but it's probably worth being cautious. I think
you can get a quick-help / cheat-sheet to get an idea of what a
command does by typing "--help" after the command or "-h". So now you
know the 3 commands above you can try;

cd --help

cd -h

ls --help

ls -h

Errr, i'd be cautious about the mkdir command in case it ends up
creating a folder called "--help" although that probably would not be
hugely bad anyway.

Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#13

Hi, Tom:

Hi :slight_smile:
These are unix commands so you find them much the same in Gnu&Linux
such as Ubuntu, openSuSE, RedHat, Mageia as well as in BSDs such as
FreeBSD, Mac and others.

cd = Change Directory
ls = LiSt = roughly the same as "dir" it gives a list of what is in
the folder/directory you are in

I think the cd command is a little wrong but ended up doing the right
thing. The aim was to get into the "home" folder and you started from
there anyway so when the instruction didn't give a folder to change
into you still ended up in the "home" folder. I think the instruction
was meant to be

cd ~

or

cd /home/user-name

    Thanks for the reply. I’m sorry I wasn’t clear: Before I posted that comment, I tested “cd” from different directories and found it to be equivalent to “cd ~” on OS X 10.10.1. I just checked and found that Ubuntu 14.04 LTS produced the same result.

but it doesn't matter. The command;

mkdir -p libreoffice/builds

should MaKe a new directory/folder. Actually it should create 2 new
folders. It should create a folder called "libreoffice" and inside
that create a sub-folder called "builds”.

    Yes, except that I’m not sure if that was intended to be taken literally: LibreOffices Preferences: LibreOffice: Paths says the default path for Documents under OS X is “~/Documents” and for everything else is subdirectories of “~/Library/Application Support/LibreOffice/4/user”. With LO 4.3.4.1 under Windows 7, it’s essentially the same except that everything else is in subdirectories of “~\AppData\Roaming\LibreOffice\4\user”.

    This suggests to me that I should cd to the “LibreOffice” directory under “~/Library/Application Support on my Mac (or “~\AppData\Roaming” under Windows 7) and create rename “4” to something like “4352”, then open LO4352 and change all those paths from “4” to “4352” to match.

    Does this make sense? I haven’t tried it yet, but I plan to if I don’t hear something to the contrary first.

    Thanks again,
    Spencer

#14

Hi :slight_smile:
I think the intention is to unpack and build the program in the new
folder and then install or move the program to the place it should be.
Maybe. However I haven't read through the rest of the instructions.
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#15

Hi, Tom:

    Thanks again for the reply.

    I did “cd ~/Library/Application Support/LibreOffice”, then "mv 4 4352”. That worked. However, I was unable to edit any of the paths in LibreOffice (LO4352) to anything that made sense to me, e.g., like to subfolders of “~/Library/Application Support/LibreOffice/4352/user”. In LibreOffice: Preferences: LibreOffice: Paths, I can click on, e.g., AutoCorrect, than Edit. This shows a path list of “/Users/sbgraves/Library/Application Support/LibreOffice/4/autocorr”. I’d like to change “4” to “4352”. I can’t find a way to do that. Clicking on it doesn’t help. I can click on of the paths, then click “Add”. This opens in different places for different paths. I’m new to Mac OS X, and I’ve so far failed to understand how to navigate to where I want with the alternatives I’m given.

    I successfully did "mkdir -p libreoffice/builds”, as described in “https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Installing_in_parallel/OS_X". Then “cd ~/Library/Application Support/LibreOffice” and "cp -r 4352 ~/libreoffice/builds/“ created copies of all the subdirectories of the former “4” subdirectory within the new "~/libreoffice/builds/“. And I was able to redirect some but not all of the paths to the new subdirectories of 4352.

    With this, I was able to install LO 4.3.4.1 and run it. It seemed to work (though “quit unexpectedly” with Tools -> Solver; however, that’s a separate issue).

    Thanks again,
    Spencer

#16

Just "inherited" a 2007 iMac and loaded Yosemite‎ (OS X 10.10.1)

First thing I loaded LO 4.4.0.2, and then 4.3.6.2 and the current
(2015-01-21) 4.5.0 master.

Steps couldn't be simpler. In fact parallel install is done almost the same
as with the Windows .msi packages

Put which ever of the installs into /Applications just like any package
install. Drag and drop there once the .dmg is downloaded and mounted.
Launch by double clicking the folder in /Applications.

For the additional installs, they could go into /Applications as well just
with different names.

But they can go anywhere. For example onto user's Desktop, Documents,
Downloads etc... just mount the downloaded .dmg package and drag the
LibreOffice or LibreOfficeDev .app directory object to where you want it to
reside. It does not need to go into /Applications.

Then use Spotlight to find the bootstraprc file and edit it in TextEdit.
Just as with Windows or Linux builds, edit the
"UserInstallation=$SYSUSERCONFIG/LibreOffice/4 "to be
"UserInstallation=$ORIGIN/../Data/settings"

The $ORIGIN variable is parsed internally by LibreOffice and then creates
the entire user profile within the app package, in the example
"Data/settings" but the directory names for the user profile can actually be
anything you like. They are fully structured profiles and are portable.

When ready to launch the build, open the .app folder with Finder and locate
the soffice executable and Control Open it. You can create an app launcher
for it if you don't want to dig down into the folder every time.

Easy as pie... I had all three flavors running simultaneously and could do
side-by-side comparisons of the UI.

#17

We are talking past each other here. What I meant is whether a LibreOffice.app renamed to Foo.app would have "expected" the user profile at ~/Library/Application Data/Foo/, i.e., would have picked up the data at ~/Library/Application Data/Foo/ if you had also renamed ~/Library/Application Data/LibreOffice/ to ~/Library/Application Data/Foo/ before starting the renamed Foo.app, or else would have created and used a fresh ~/Library/Application Data/Foo/ if you did not rename ~/Library/Application Data/LibreOffice/.

#18

...and <https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Installing_in_parallel/OS_X#Old_Method> indeed claims that did work long ago: "Up to and including the 3.3.x series, the way to separate configurations on the Mac simply involved renaming your existing installation user configuration folder to the same name as the name of the LibreOffice application." Interesting; that completely slips my memory.

#19

Hi :slight_smile:
I think you finding something easy is no real indication of whether it
is really easy or actually quite complicated. You have done many
amazing things and seem to have a lot of experience doing exactly this
in another OS so you have a good foundation that probably most of us
don't have.

Actually your email seem to simplify the instructions rather well! :slight_smile:
I sometimes find that even just explaining something any different way
around is a good way to get people unstuck. So, many thanks for that
:slight_smile:

@ Spencer. Did that help make more sense of the instructions? If not
please let us know and don't worry about questions seeming stupid to
you. Clearly only a few people here understand how to do it so we are
learning here too.

Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#20

Hi, Tom et al.:

    The previously cited published instructions confused me. However, I was able to install 4 different versions of LibreOffice in parallel under OS X 10.10.1 by renaming the most recent version in Finder: Applications to “LO” with its version number before installing the next version. Now I have under Applications LO4341, LO4352, LO4361 and LibreOffice (LO 4.4.0.2). If I close one and open another, I get the expected version number with “About LibreOffice”.

    Beyond this, users can customize what to share between versions via LO: Preferences: (LibreOffice: Paths).

    Best Wishes,
    Spencer

p.s. Regarding “amazing things”, I started writing Fortran in 1963. Computers have been part of my life for over half a century. My basic engineering training discussed both tubes and transistors. Around 1964 or 1965 I was impressed with the availability of 2 transistors in a single package. I’m over the hill but not yet under it :wink: