[Lazarus] Lazarus config woes

[Hans-Peter Diettrich]

I just encountered a nasty problem:

When I have multiple Lazarus installations (trunk, branches, 
snapshot...), the common Lazarus configuration is used by default (when 
no --pcp is specified). Actually I wondered about many error messages on 
an IDE rebuild, until I noticed that the (default) configuration 
referred to a different Lazarus directory :-(

This leads me to the question, how a user should configure and start 
Lazarus at all?

What exactly happens when the IDE is invoked, from a desktop item or 
command prompt?
Where does the IDE look for the configuration? Is it sufficient to have 
a MyLazarus\cfg\ directory, to make the MyLazarus\Lazarus.exe use the 
configuration in that directory?

IMO the IDE should look for a configuration in the current (EXE) 
directory first, and only into the common directory when no config can 
be found there. The config naming instead suggests that the IDE looks 
into the *primary* (common) config directory first, and into its own 
directory only next (*secondary* config path).


What exactly happens when the IDE rebuilds itself?
Which directory is used for the sources, and for storing the new 
(compiled) IDE? Does it make any sense to rebuild the IDE from sources 
in a different directory, and where is the new IDE stored?


Can somebody please clarify the intended procedure for configuring 
multiple parallel Lazarus installations?

DoDi