Re: app-defaults vs. Xresources
Guy Maor <maor@ece.utexas.edu> writes:
>
> Richard Kaszeta <kaszeta@me.umn.edu> writes:
>
> > 1. If I change /usr/lib/X11/app-defaults, then this change will effect
> > all users of Xdvi on my machine.
> >
> > 2. If I add this customisation to /etc/X11/Xresources, then since
> > /etc/X11/Xresources (and .Xresources) only effect the copy of X
> > running on the local machine, users on other machines will experience
> > incorrect behavior.
>
> The flaw in your reasoning is that an upgrade of xdvi will overwrite
> /usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/XDvi. Even if the file in app-defaults were
> to be a conffile, a future version of XDvi might break with an old
> app-default. The current way of overriding defaults in a separate
> file really is better.
app-defaults is really the correct file to change. Generally,
Xresources should not be added to for an application specific program.
It is inefficient to have application-specific defaults in every
program's database. Realistically, it may be easier for an
administrator to change the Xresources file, but each of the
app-defaults files should be a conffile. Of course, a better method
of merging conffiles is needed, but that is a while off.
For now, change the app-defaults files to conffiles. Let the
administrator decide whether to change that file, and manually merge
the files when updating, or to add to the /etc/X11/Xresources file.
However, that requires moving all of the app-defaults files to a place
where it is legal to change them
Alternatively, our default XFILESEARCHPATH could be modified to look
in another directory before looking in the current directories. Only
if there is an appropriate file in that directory does it get loaded.
This still leaves the problem of manual editing of app-defaults files,
and the administrator doesn't even get a hint on when the file needs
to be updated.
--
Kevin Dalley
kevin@aimnet.com
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