Thoughts on updating the setpath.bat file to persist setting the path?
Here's an updated version that sets the system environment variable while preserving the existing unexpanded PATH value:
rem SOF
echo off
set OWNPATH=%~dp0
set PLATFORM=mswin
if defined ProgramFiles(x86) set PLATFORM=win64
if "%PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE%"=="AMD64" set PLATFORM=win64
if exist "%OWNPATH%tex\texmf-mswin\bin\context.exe" set PLATFORM=mswin
if exist "%OWNPATH%tex\texmf-win64\bin\context.exe" set PLATFORM=win64
echo %PATH% | findstr "texmf-%PLATFORM%" > nul
rem Only update the PATH if not previously updated
if ERRORLEVEL 1 (
set Key="HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment"
set "CurrPath="
for /F "USEBACKQ tokens=2*" %%A in (`reg query %%Key%% /v PATH`) do (
if not "%%~B" == "" (
rem Preserve the existing PATH
echo %%B > currpath.txt
rem Update the current session
set PATH=%PATH%;%OWNPATH%tex\texmf-%PLATFORM%\bin
rem Change the PATH environment variable
setx PATH "%%B;%OWNPATH%tex\texmf-%PLATFORM%\bin" /M
)
)
)
rem EOF
Another possibility would be to define CONTEXT_HOME as an unexpanded value added to both the system environment variables and the PATH variable. For example (haven't tried it):
setx CONTEXT_HOME "%OWNPATH%tex\texmf-%PLATFORM%\bin"
setx PATH "%%B;%%CONTEXT_HOME%%"
The advantage with this pattern is that subsequent updates need only check for CONTEXT_HOME and change its value without having to worry about PATH parsing, which can be hairy.
Yet another option to consider is changing the value for only the existing user, rather than system-wide. Perhaps two different batch files?
The reason for this change is because the Windows installation instructions (on the wiki) are incomplete: technically, the user must run setpath.bat for each new session. This implies that any third-party program that wants to make use of ConTeXt on Windows would have to communicate said fact to the user, or let the user set the full path to ConTeXt within the third-party program. Both of these can be avoided by persisting the PATH setting across sessions.
Thank you!
P.S.