We have a $HSITE var set up here for centralized setup of scripts, UI and otls.
Is there anything else we can put in there to avoid having to sync up local/renderslave installs?
I have need to put thing like .dlls in to the bin/dso dir, and .h files into the vex/include dirs for things like HOT, etc.
Can theses get put in a central location for access by all the local machine installs?

Yep. Whatever is in $HFS/houdini can go in $HSITE/ and will be picked up by Houdini. It is designed to put all globally shared resources for Houdini.

Your main diagnostic tool is a shell configured with the houdini environment (could be the shell spawned from Houdini) and type:

hconfig -ap

This will return a complete breakdown of the current Houdini environment. What envvars have been set, what paths Houdini searches and how it expands the variables. Makes it crystal clear.

Running hconfig -ap will show you that the default setup takes in to consideration the envvar $HSITE if it exists. Unlike $HIP, $HFS and $JOB, $HSITE is not owned by Houdini and is used only if it exists. For this reason you shouldn't be setting HSITE in the Houdini scene files but leave this as a system variable outside of Houdini.

The HSITE directory should be laid out identical to $HFS/houdini with for example, dso, scripts, otls, pic, etc… Again anything that is picked up in $HFS/houdini can be picked up by $HSITE/. These directories will be searched in turn.

Add things bit by bit and confirm on a remote workstation with a proper houdini environment in a shell and use that hconfig -ap command.

Great info Jeff. Thanks for that!
We have $HSITE setup as a windows env variable so it will never change.

I just wonder if there are both directories, if there's a chance to cause a mess. With double entries. On HSITE and HFS.
So for now I'm working the HFS way. Since I want the PCs to share the same scripts, otls, etc and keep them at the same versioning level, I'd like to “migrate” to HSITE on a NAS.
What are the acutal steps to do so? Would I need to delete the HFS directory? Would I need to delete its conents? Are there still any specific informations stored in HFS just regarding this PC? Especially if not every PC has a render license for a third party renderer. How is this done properly without causing “damage”?

Cheers
Tom

Tom Mangold
I just wonder if there are both directories, if there's a chance to cause a mess. With double entries. On HSITE and HFS.

HFS is the houdini install folder. You wouldn't typically modify it.

Ah, sorry. Mixed something up. Currently try to make some use of the env variables, since there was no need in the past to do so. Seems I meant HOME and not HFS. But probably I'm confused about the terminology. I want to put an end to the “mess” of having different work environments on different PCs. Some have the newest .hda, some not, depending on when you last added them manually to each one. So, this seems to be the case because every PC uses its own HOME directory. I want to solve this by putting the scripts, .hda and desktop settings in one centralized place. This is the HSITE one, right? But I'm not sure what the consequences are if there is some “stuff” left in the local HOME folder.

Tom Mangold
This is the HSITE one, right? But I'm not sure what the consequences are if there is some “stuff” left in the local HOME folder.

The consequences depend on what the “stuff” is. An OTL containing definitions sharing type names with an OTL in a different location in the search path may lead to ambiguity as to which definition is used–by default it will be the newest one.

Other types of files depend on the path search order to determine which takes precedence. Other than same file collisions, everything else is cumulative. It's normal to keep certain toolbars and desktops in HOME rather than a central location as they may be user specific and usually don't prevent a scene from working without them.

Thank you! While it's great to customize stuff, the amount of env vars in Houdini is a bit intimidating and it's hard to tell whether this will cause problems or solutions for the better.

PRobably it's a good idea to just delete all local files in HOME (back them up in a separate place) after creating the HSITE with all files moved there from the local directory. After restarting H it'll create some files again. Like houdini.env. Since houdini.env will point to your installs of RS for instance it could/should stay local. I just replaced it with the back up houdini.env. Need to check what else might be needed to stay local (HOME).