Re: New module proposal: gnome-user-share

[Bastien Nocera <hadess hadess net>]

On Sat, 2008-10-25 at 03:06 +0200, BJörn Lindqvist wrote:
> 2008/10/24 Bastien Nocera <hadess hadess net>:
> > On Fri, 2008-10-24 at 21:11 +0200, BJörn Lindqvist wrote:
> >> Isn't that what nfs does? Or for that matter, ftp? I don't understand
> >> why a web server is needed for sharing files.
> >
> > WebDAV is supported natively with Bonjour/Zeroconf in MacOS X and
> > Windows, and is very well supported in GVFS and Nautilus.
> 
> What web servers do they run?

MacOS X uses Apache httpd, Windows uses some cut down version of IIS, as
far as I remember (it's been a very long time I haven't used a Windows
machine).

> > Adding more protocols would be easy, but unneeded in my opinion.
> 
> I feel kind of silly for installing Apache (along with the default "It
> works!" html page) for sharing files.. but I get your point.
> 
> I have experimented some with gnome-user-share, and it works very
> well. But there seem to be some rough edges.
> 
> Only the ~/Public directory is shared. Unless you already know about
> it, it is quite impossible to guess what name the directory should
> have. Why can't it work like nautilus-share? Right click any directory
> -> Sharing options. It is very discoverable.

gnome-user-share is a simple system to share a few files between users
in a network. It's not a full-fledged shares admin system, and it
doesn't want to be that either.

> The capplet allows you to configure password less sharing. Allowing
> that seems like a bad choice to me and a user induced security hole.

Not if you don't allow writing.

> The description could also be clearer on who will gain access to the
> shared files. It reads "Share filer over the network." I assume it
> means the local area network and not the internet, but I'm not sure.

It shares it on whatever network you're connected to. So, yes, it will
share it on the internet if you're directly connected to the internet.

> Then there are some minor bugs. The share name is not translated and
> always reads "public files."

name = g_strdup_printf (_("%s's public files"), g_get_user_name ());
It is translated.

>  Trying to open the share from localhost
> returns "HTTP-error: Cannot connect to destination."

It's not an HTTP share, it's a webdav share.

> Also, I would like to mount the shares like you can with samba and nfs
> shares. But I assume that is out of scope for g-u-s.

The shares exported by gnome-user-share are already mountable through
nautilus and gvfs.

Cheers