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Re: [gdm-list] Proposed interface changes


As an update.

In GDM 2.19, items #1 (deprecate AlwaysRestartserver configuration
option), #2 (deprecate PidFile configuration option) and /var/log/gdm is
now the default log directory for GDM.  Based on good argument by Dan
Nicolson, we still use /var/lib/gdm for storing Xauth files.

Brian



GDM interested people:

We just released GDM 2.18 with lots of nice improvements.  I hope
people are enjoying the new features.  We are working to integrate
more neat features into 2.19.

There are some interface changes in GDM I would like to propose.  I plan
on making these changes in GDM 2.19 unless I hear negative feedback.  If
I don't get any response, I'll assume that this is approval.  If you
have better ideas how to fix any of these issues, please share.

1) Deprecate AlwaysRestartServer configuration option.

    Enhancement Request 326771

    This enhancement allows you to specify additional Xserver arguments
    in the desktop file using the X-Gdm-XserverArgs key.  This would
    be useful because environments (such as users who need a11y) might
    work better with certain extensions enabled which can be specified on
    the command line.  Likewise, certain desktops might require special
    arguments (I believe LookingGlass, for example, requires special
    extensions).

    Specifying additional arguments in the desktop file allows the user
    to create additional GDM sessions which cause GDM to run the Xserver
    in a special way.  Currently GDM only allows you to specify Xserver
    args per display.

    However, the above enhancement is hard to make work with
    AlwaysRestartServer because once you allow the extensions to change
    per-session, you need to restart when the extensions change.  Adding
    logic to make sure the daemon remembers whether it needs to restart
    the server would be cumbersome.

    AlwaysRestartServer is a dodgy configuration setting because it
    exposes the user to all sorts of problems when set to true.  Since
    it causes GDM to re-use the Xserver for each session, any memory
    leaks or instabilities in the Xserver could easily cause problems
    for users who run GDM for long periods of time.  For users who
    run GDM for long periods of time, any performance advantages made by
    reusing the Xserver could easily be lost by memory leaks affecting
    your performance, etc.

    I recommend we deprecate this key, remove all references to it in
    the code, but leave it in the config file with a comment explaining
    that the value is ignored.  GDM should always restart server.

2) Deprecate PidFile configuration option

    Bug 162849

    GDM currently saves the PID value of the daemon in the file specified
    in your configuration as PidFile (/var/run/gdm.pid.  This filename
    can be configured.  The Fast User Switch applet does not use this
    interface.  This Pid is only used by other GDM clients who want
    to know if the daemon is running or to kill/restart the daemon.

    I would like to hardcode this to /var/run/gdm.pid, so that all
    clients know where to find the PidFile without needing to first
    query the configuration.  Since you need to use the GDM socket
    to get configuration data, you currently find out that the
    daemon isn't available when the socket connection fails, which
    is broken.  Currently you have to wait for the connection to
    fail 5 times with a 1 second delay between tries.  If the
    location were hardcoded, then the client programs could easily
    see if the daemon is running without needing to access configuration.

    I recommend we deprecate this key, remove all references to it in
    the code, and make GET_CONFIG command return the hardcoded string
    if a client requests the PidFile key.

3) /var/lib/log/gdm and /var/lib/gdm.

    Sun's ARC community has complained that /var/lib is a stupid
    place to put files, and that the semantics of /var/lib are ill
    defined.  GDM is one of the only programs that uses this
    directory.

    I'd like to move the following 2 directories.  Note these are
    both already configurable in the GDM configuration, so any
    client program that accesses these should already be first getting
    the configuration key to know what directory to find them.

    /var/lib/gdm

       This directory contains xauth files, and is typically only
       used by GDM directly.  This directory is associated with the
       ServAuthDir key in the configuration file.

       I recommend we move /var/lib/gdm     to /var/gdm/auth

       Note the Fast User Switch applet does *not* use this directory
       it instead calls AUTH_LOCAL and uses XauFileName() to get the
       key.

    /var/lib/log/gdm

       Xserver output logs for each display started by GDM.  This
       directory is associated with the LogDir key in the configuration
       file.

       I recommend we move /var/lib/log/gdm to /var/log/gdm or /var/gdm.

       It doesn't make good sense to put GDM logs directly in /var/log
       since GDM generates many logs (one for each display that you
       use - including displays associated with VT's) so there are
       typically lots of log files.  Better to not clutter /var/log
       with so many logs.

4) Might be nice to add some newer GDM themes from art.gnome.org
    into the GDM default codebase, and perhaps change the default
    theme to something more modern.  Any ideas?

Brian

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