Re: Re: installing an end user editable file
On 2/13/11, Craig Small <csmall@debian.org> wrote:
> On Sun, Feb 13, 2011 at 06:24:06PM +0000, james frize wrote:
>> I'm looking at installing the links.txt file to
>> ~/.<packagename>/links.txt, but I don't seem to be able to use the
>> ~wildcard.
> Is this in rules file? If so you cannot do that at all. It doesn't
> make any sense for a package to install a file in the users home
> directory.
>
> Generally there is a /etc/<package>/whatever file for defaults and any
> user specific files would be in /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples
> The file in examples should really tell people what to do, e.g.:
>
> # This is an example file for whatever, you can copy this to
> # ~/.whatever/myfile
>
> There are many problems with getting a package installer to install
> files in a user's home directory. Perhaps the first one I can think of
> is, "which user's directory?"
An obvious answer is "ALL users' directories," but the question
arises, "even users that don't exist yet?" That's why Lars suggested
creating a default file in /usr/share and having the program copy it
to the user's directory when it's run. You can't do that in the
Debian installer, though, so you would have to patch (i.e. modify) the
source code of the application itself.
Why must this file be user-modifiable? Must all users of the system
be able to modify it such that everyone then uses the modified file?
What are the possible consequences if one user is an asshole and makes
modifications with the intent of doing damage?
This can be done; many games store a high-score list that anyone can
modify by playing the game. But have you thought about those issues?
Is it necessary?
--
-PJ
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