bugGKSu - Bugs: bug #37872, Support XDG basedir specification

 
 

bug #37872: Support XDG basedir specification

Submitter:  Eric Heintzmann <eheintzmann>
Submitted:  Wed 05 Dec 2012 09:36:27 PM UTC
Votes: 1
 
Category:  None Severity:  3 - Normal
Item Group:  None Status:  None
Privacy:  Public Assigned to:  None
Open/Closed:  Open
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Sat 08 Mar 2014 11:39:34 AM UTC, comment #2: 

### The XDG spec has grown and includes environmental parameters related to desktop sessions and so on.

For example, $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR

I frequently want to run gksu with the -u switch : gksu -u lesser [commands]
(Instead of running gksu without a -u switch, thus defaulting to running as root).

Here is a (non-representative, but specific to my machine) sample:


    XDG_CONFIG_HOME      is /root/.config
    XDG_DATA_DIRS        is /usr/local/share/:/usr/share/:/usr/share/mdm/
    XDG_DATA_HOME        is ~/.local/share
    XDG_RUNTIME_DIR      is /run/user/0
    XDG_SEAT             is seat0
    XDG_SESSION_COOKIE   is d012284f9cacbc963a4b500900000a23-1393081962.511687-1819563469
    XDG_SESSION_ID       is c1
    XDG_VTNR             is 7

In particular, gksu should *not* be passing "XDG_RUNTIME_DIR" into the gksu user's environment!

See a script that modifies the XDG_* variables in the environment using env as the command parameter to gksu , then runs the finally wanted command using this new env, at http://pastie.org/8898241. After running vim from gksu with this script as a setup.

The errors that are reported when the XDG* environment are not cleaned up depend on the application that's being run. *XDG_RUNTIME_DIR* is the most likely troublemaker.


Sören Andersen <somian>
Sat 05 Jan 2013 10:15:34 AM UTC, comment #1: 

According to XDG Base directory specification:
User data should go into $XDG_DATA_HOME (which default to ~/.local/share),
user preferences should go into $XDG_CONFIG_HOME (which default to ~/.config)
and cached data should go to $XDG_CACHE_HOME (which default to ~/.cache).
More details at :
http://ploum.net/post/207-modify-your-application-to-use-xdg-folders
https://live.gnome.org/GnomeGoals/XDGConfigFolders

Full specification can be found at:
http://standards.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/latest/

The Freedesktop.org XDG base directory specification have good de facto adoption.
It has been adopted by:
- GNOME ( https://live.gnome.org/GnomeGoals/XDGConfigFolders )
- GTK+ ( https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=646631 )
- KDE ( http://techbase.kde.org/KDE_System_Administration/XDG_Filesystem_Hierarchy#Freedesktop.org_and_Standard_Directories )
- QT ( http://harmattan-dev.nokia.com/docs/library/html/qt4/qsettings.html#setPath )
- XFCE ( http://docs.xfce.org/xfce/xfce4-session/advanced in Files and Environment Variables )
- LXDE
- Razor-qt
- VLC ( https://trac.videolan.org/vlc/ticket/1267 )
- GStreamer ( https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=518597 )
- Chrome ( http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=16976 )
- many more upstream applications
- Ubuntu ( http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/6557/ & http://packages.ubuntu.com/fr/source/precise/libxdg-basedir )
- Debian ( http://packages.debian.org/squeeze/libxdg-basedir1 )
- Red Hat
- Fedora
- Suse
- many more distributions

I think that GKSu should use same locations than the vast majority of Desktop environment and applications.


There are real advantages of following this specification :
- a lot less cluttered $HOME
- Make backups a lot more safer and easier.
  Backuping your $XDG_DATA_HOME along with your files is enough
  (or just excluding $XDG_CACHE_HOME)
- A lot easier to reset a default configuration if you want/need it (and
  without any risk to loose informations). Even for the software itself
  could choose to reset $XDG_CONFIG_HOME if needed.
- Avoid some strange bugs that happens because you had a old version of
  some configuration file
- A lot more of flexibility and portability because no path are hardcoded.

Eric Heintzmann <eheintzmann>
Wed 05 Dec 2012 09:36:27 PM UTC, original submission:  
Eric Heintzmann <eheintzmann>

 

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