[0.10.12] Can't Save With Multiple Factorio Instances

[elliotpotts]

If you are playing a game of factorio and you open another instance of factorio, the first game cannot be saved because the second instance deletes the temp folder.

To reproduce:

• Open instance A of factorio
• Open a game (campaign or free play) (this creates temp and temp/currently-playing directories)
• Open instance B of factorio (this deletes temp/* directories)
• Go back to instance A of factorio and try to save (this creates temp/currently-saving directory)
• The save will fail because temp/currently-playing cannot be found. (This is the bug)

To possibly fix from there:

• Go back to instance B of factorio (or open a new one if you closed it) and open a new game which is of the type (free play vs campaign) of game that instance A is running (this creates temp/currently-playing)
• Go back to instance A of factorio and save. The save will work this time possible
• Close instance B of factorio and continue playing as normal

If there is a mismatch in game types between A and B during the fix, the save will not load correctly.

Edit: I'm on linux x64 though this doesn't look to be platform dependent

[Boogieman14]

I would think this is not really a bug, as you're not expected to run two instances from the same directory (in fact, I think the Windows version will even die with some error message about that temp directory). The solution is to make a copy of the entire factorio directory and start the second instance from there.

[kovarex]

Yes, this is not a bug, two instances can be used if factorio is in distinct directories.

[elliotpotts]

This is definitely a bug, to allow the user to possibly silently lose their game? Starting a new instance of factorio in the same directory should show an error message and not start at least!

[ssilk]

I see that the same. A program can be started as often as wanted. It needs to prevent itself from being obviously misused. Every operating system provides locking mechanisms to prevent this effectively.

[jeroon]

Edit: I'm on linux x64 though this doesn't look to be platform dependent

I haven't tested on 0.10.12, but 0.11.3 on Win 7 x64 gives me an error when I try to start a second instance, "Can't start because log files are in use by other process" (the first instance).

[elliotpotts]

So maybe this is platform dependent. Either way this is certainly a bug. Factorio should refuse to open when a second instance is launched at least. Can this be moved from "Not a bug"?