Drag and drop not working?

seanos · 12-11-2025, 08:32 PM

I just noticed that drag and drop no longer works in the code editor. Was this changed recently?

Maybe this will inspire me to come up with a regex to fix the badly interweaved spans in this document that I’ve been fixing by dragging tags around.

KevinH · 12-11-2025, 08:39 PM

Drag and drop in the editor was never officially supported because its usage constantly caused Qt segfaults. Its use is disabled for that reason as we do not want to support something that can cause crashes that we can not fix as they are internal to Qt.

There is an environment variable a user can set to re-enable it in Sigil. But if you choose to do that, you will get no support from us for any crashes it may cause.

I do not remember the exact env variable name anymore, but it is documented in the advanced chapters in our Sigil user guide that deals with environment variables and Sigil.

Update ... Found it:

SIGIL_ALLOW_CODEVIEW_DROP If this value is set, drag and drop editing inside CodeView is enabled. Be warned that on some platforms, using drag and drop to edit inside CodeView can be unstable causing Sigil to crash. No support will be provided to people who decide to enable drag and drop as fixing these issues are outside our control (internal to Qt6).

seanos · 12-11-2025, 08:41 PM

Thanks. I don’t think I’ve experienced that crash, or at least, not often enough to recall.

seanos · 12-11-2025, 09:36 PM

Maybe I had this set in the desktop entry file which has been overwritten.

I tried setting this in .bashrc, but that doesn’t seem to work for some reason. I can see the variable is set from a command prompt.

Launching from a local desktop entry with env SIGIL_ALLOW_CODEVIEW_DROP=1 sigil %F works so I suppose I just need to keep a .local copy of the desktop file.

KevinH · 12-11-2025, 10:53 PM

Or your login account uses a .profile instead of .bashrc

seanos · 12-11-2025, 11:42 PM

I seem to have both .profile and .bashrc (but no .bash_profile). The .profile sources .bashrc though (. "$HOME/.bashrc").

If the variable appears when I type env in a command prompt, shouldn’t it be available to Sigil?

DiapDealer · 12-11-2025, 11:47 PM

Depends on the distro. The terminal environment is typically not exactly same as the gui environment.

Why not just set the variable by adding it to the env-vars.txt file in Sigil's prefs directory (create the file if need be) and be done with it? Use of the env-vars.txt file was introduced in Sigil 2.6.2

seanos · 12-11-2025, 11:57 PM

At a guess, because I didn’t realise that was a thing.

seanos · 12-12-2025, 12:03 AM

In this process I’ve also noticed that I can’t copy text from the online version of Sigil’s manual.

philja · 12-12-2025, 05:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Depends on the distro. The terminal environment is typically not exactly same as the gui environment.

Why not just set the variable by adding it to the env-vars.txt file in Sigil's prefs directory (create the file if need be) and be done with it? Use of the env-vars.txt file was introduced in Sigil 2.6.2

This thread prompted me to review the environment variables in the user guide. I didn't realise there were so many possibilities. The guide doesn't show any example entry.

What would an entry in env-vars.txt look like?

BeckyEbook · 12-12-2025, 05:39 AM

Use the Force plugin, Luke.

DiapDealer · 12-12-2025, 07:18 AM

Lots of insight into the feature in the thread where its inclusion was first discussed:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=369497

DiapDealer · 12-12-2025, 09:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by seanos

In this process I’ve also noticed that I can’t copy text from the online version of Sigil’s manual.

Not sure why. It works fine for me. From the Advanced section of the user guide: Using Sigil's Environment Variables

Some rarely needed settings in Sigil are controlled by "Environment Variables". An environment variable is a user-definable value that can affect the way running processes will behave on a computer. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environment_variable for more information on setting and using environment variables on your computer. Starting with Sigil 2.6.2, we have tried to make the process of setting and changing Sigil's environment variables much easier. With that release or later you can now simply use any text editor you want (Notepad, BBedit, emacs, vi, kate, etc) and create a file called "env-vars.txt" inside your Sigil Preferences folder. Add each environment variable and its value, one per line, in the following format:

ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLE_NAME=VALUE

philja · 12-12-2025, 09:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Lots of insight into the feature in the thread where its inclusion was first discussed:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=369497

Thanks for that, DiapDealer. Env Variables are not something I have had a need for so I missed that thread.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BeckyEbook

Use the Force plugin, Luke.

Thanks also to Becky for the plugin. That saves a load of effort.

DiapDealer · 12-12-2025, 09:37 AM

There are a few (mostly Qt-related) variables that are not set soon enough when using env-vars.txt via Sigil, but not very many. And of course our own SIGIL_PREFS_DIR variable cannot be set using env-vars.txt (since the prefs directory needs to be known before env-vars.txt can be processed). Most work just fine, though.

12-11-2025, 08:32 PM	#1
seanos Zealot Posts: 118 Karma: 12 Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Melbourne, Australia Device: Kobo Sage, Kobo Aura H2O, LG V20	Drag and drop not working? I just noticed that drag and drop no longer works in the code editor. Was this changed recently? Maybe this will inspire me to come up with a regex to fix the badly interweaved spans in this document that I’ve been fixing by dragging tags around.

12-11-2025, 08:39 PM	#2
KevinH Sigil Developer Posts: 9,157 Karma: 6565346 Join Date: Nov 2009 Device: many	Drag and drop in the editor was never officially supported because its usage constantly caused Qt segfaults. Its use is disabled for that reason as we do not want to support something that can cause crashes that we can not fix as they are internal to Qt. There is an environment variable a user can set to re-enable it in Sigil. But if you choose to do that, you will get no support from us for any crashes it may cause. I do not remember the exact env variable name anymore, but it is documented in the advanced chapters in our Sigil user guide that deals with environment variables and Sigil. Update ... Found it: SIGIL_ALLOW_CODEVIEW_DROP If this value is set, drag and drop editing inside CodeView is enabled. Be warned that on some platforms, using drag and drop to edit inside CodeView can be unstable causing Sigil to crash. No support will be provided to people who decide to enable drag and drop as fixing these issues are outside our control (internal to Qt6). Last edited by KevinH; 12-11-2025 at 08:45 PM.

12-11-2025, 11:47 PM	#7
DiapDealer Grand Sorcerer Posts: 28,970 Karma: 208569852 Join Date: Jan 2010 Device: Nexus 7, Kindle Fire HD	Depends on the distro. The terminal environment is typically not exactly same as the gui environment. Why not just set the variable by adding it to the env-vars.txt file in Sigil's prefs directory (create the file if need be) and be done with it? Use of the env-vars.txt file was introduced in Sigil 2.6.2 Last edited by DiapDealer; 12-11-2025 at 11:55 PM.

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Why drag and drop stopped working	fartang	Library Management	23	12-23-2024 09:41 AM
Drag & Drop stopped working	Iskariot	Calibre	1	03-06-2016 06:27 AM
Drag and Drop not working anymore	pietro	Calibre	0	08-15-2014 01:21 PM
Drag and drop to add books not working.	Stumbl	Library Management	6	02-16-2011 09:31 PM
Drag and Drop not working	mazzeltjes	Calibre	2	01-15-2009 06:32 PM

12-11-2025, 08:41 PM	#3
seanos Zealot Posts: 118 Karma: 12 Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Melbourne, Australia Device: Kobo Sage, Kobo Aura H2O, LG V20	Thanks. I don’t think I’ve experienced that crash, or at least, not often enough to recall.

12-11-2025, 09:36 PM	#4
seanos Zealot Posts: 118 Karma: 12 Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Melbourne, Australia Device: Kobo Sage, Kobo Aura H2O, LG V20	Maybe I had this set in the desktop entry file which has been overwritten. I tried setting this in .bashrc, but that doesn’t seem to work for some reason. I can see the variable is set from a command prompt. Launching from a local desktop entry with env SIGIL_ALLOW_CODEVIEW_DROP=1 sigil %F works so I suppose I just need to keep a .local copy of the desktop file.

12-11-2025, 10:53 PM	#5
KevinH Sigil Developer Posts: 9,157 Karma: 6565346 Join Date: Nov 2009 Device: many	Or your login account uses a .profile instead of .bashrc

12-11-2025, 11:42 PM	#6
seanos Zealot Posts: 118 Karma: 12 Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Melbourne, Australia Device: Kobo Sage, Kobo Aura H2O, LG V20	I seem to have both .profile and .bashrc (but no .bash_profile). The .profile sources .bashrc though (. "$HOME/.bashrc"). If the variable appears when I type env in a command prompt, shouldn’t it be available to Sigil?

12-11-2025, 11:57 PM	#8
seanos Zealot Posts: 118 Karma: 12 Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Melbourne, Australia Device: Kobo Sage, Kobo Aura H2O, LG V20	At a guess, because I didn’t realise that was a thing.

12-12-2025, 12:03 AM	#9
seanos Zealot Posts: 118 Karma: 12 Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Melbourne, Australia Device: Kobo Sage, Kobo Aura H2O, LG V20	In this process I’ve also noticed that I can’t copy text from the online version of Sigil’s manual.

12-12-2025, 05:39 AM	#11
BeckyEbook Guru Posts: 915 Karma: 3501166 Join Date: Jan 2017 Location: Poland Device: Various	Use the Force plugin, Luke.

12-12-2025, 07:18 AM	#12
DiapDealer Grand Sorcerer Posts: 28,970 Karma: 208569852 Join Date: Jan 2010 Device: Nexus 7, Kindle Fire HD	Lots of insight into the feature in the thread where its inclusion was first discussed: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=369497

12-12-2025, 09:37 AM	#15
DiapDealer Grand Sorcerer Posts: 28,970 Karma: 208569852 Join Date: Jan 2010 Device: Nexus 7, Kindle Fire HD	There are a few (mostly Qt-related) variables that are not set soon enough when using env-vars.txt via Sigil, but not very many. And of course our own SIGIL_PREFS_DIR variable cannot be set using env-vars.txt (since the prefs directory needs to be known before env-vars.txt can be processed). Most work just fine, though.