Re: [Gimp-developer] XDG support and better Windows configuration path

[Jehan Pagès <jehan marmottard gmail com>]

Hi,

On Thu, Oct 11, 2012 at 10:12 AM, Partha Bagchi <partha1b gmail com> wrote:
> On Wed, Oct 10, 2012 at 6:12 PM, Michael Natterer <mitch gimp org> wrote:
>> Hi all,
>>
>> Since we are about to change things here, let's do
>> it right and consistent across platforms this time.
>>
>> I suggest:
>>
>> OSX: NSApplicationSupportDirectory/GIMP/GIMP_APP_VERSION
>> WIN: APPDATA/GIMP/GIMP_APP_VERSION
>> XDG: XDG_CONFIG_DIR/GIMP/GIMP_APP_VERSION
>>
>> which means for master:
>>
>> OSX: ~/Library/Application Support/GIMP/2.9
>> WIN: (whatever windows folder i have no clue about)\GIMP\2.9
>> XDG: ~/.config/GIMP/2.9
>>
>> I know the part before "GIMP/2.9" should be handled
>> by g_get_user_config_dir(), but until it does, let's
>> do the right thing anyway.
>>
>> Comments?
>>
>> --mitch
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> gimp-developer-list mailing list
>> gimp-developer-list gnome org
>> https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gimp-developer-list
>
> Yes, I think this will break a whole lot of folks who have gotten into
> the "bad" habit already with c:/Users/$Username/.gimp-x.x while OSX
> just went from .gimp-x.x to ~/Library/Application Support/gimp-x.x to
> ~/Library/GIMP/x.x back to ~/Library/Application Support/gimp-x.x.

No we have a migration system (it was already in place, I simply
updated it to now take the current naming into account) which happens
when you start the GIMP in some version for the first time.
Basically when 2.10 will go out with the new path, and see there is no
~/.config/GIMP/2.10, it will search for ~/.gimp-2.8, then ~/.gimp-2.6,
etc. And it will migrate if it finds one.
Only people who compile with --with-gimpdir option different from one
time to another (but if they always used the same, or the defaults, no
problem), and maybe people who use the environment variable (because
they never let GIMP migrate their options properly), can have a
problem. Otherwise no breakage.
In other words, the problem may happen for those who use custom
folders rather than the one using default settings.

> Can't we simply make this a user configuration as it used to be before
> where one could select the user directory?

Setting of the configuration folder's name at compile time
(--with-gimpdir) stays, but it is now relative to the user
configuration directory, not the home. So you can call your folder
BLABLA/2.10 instead of GIMP/2.10, if you really wish so.
Actually by the new system that Michael proposes, we will even fix a
potential migration breakage where people were choosing a folder name
without the version in it. Hence migration of configuration could
break (in case something had to change, but GIMP can't know it has to
migrate).

The configuration by environment variable ($GIMP2_DIRECTORY) stays as
well and is still the priority if set. Also it is still relative to
$HOME directory if relative, as it used to be (for the exact reason
that I don't want to break existing configuration).

That leads me to wonder: what do we want to do if the variable is set:
1) We save directly under this path. Hence we never know if a version
bump (or downgrade) occurred (hence there can be problems at every
change of version for this user's configuration if ever something a
little more than copy-paste needed to happen).
2) We now make a subdirectory with the version. Hence $GIMP2_DIRECTORY/x.x/.

I would think that we could go with 2). That's a little more work to
detect the situation but that's nicer to the users. What do you think?
Of course, if you don't want, that's just less work for me, so I am
ok. :p

> Of course, if the above will be the rule, at least publicize it in advance?

I can't answer for this, but I guess there could be a news, of course.
But as I said, that should be transparent to most users. Hence a
simple item in the release note should be ok. But a news is always
nice because a lot of people waited for XDG support. :-)

Jehan