Re: GMC ignoring user mime info

[Daniel Lyddy <daniell cs berkeley edu>]

Michael Scottaline wrote:
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Daniel Lyddy <daniell@cs.berkeley.edu>
> Date: Thu, 10 Aug 2000 21:02:34 -0700
> To: GNOME Users <gnome-list@gnome.org>
> Subject: Re: GMC ignoring user mime info
> 
> > ZekeVarg wrote:
> > >
> > > You can try to remove "[en]" infront of each line
> >
> > I tried this, but as soon as I log out and login again (restarting gmc),
> > some program or script puts the [en] stuff right back in front of each
> > line.  What is [en] supposed to mean, I assumed it meant "English," is
> > this some kind of locale designator?
> ==============================
> Had you done this as root user?  Did you "save" the changes?
> Just a guess....

Nope, this is an individual user problem, I guess I should have left the
original complaint with this reply instead of editing it out.

In this case, it would not matter whether that individual user is root
or not.  The root user's mime information goes into a separate directory
from all other users, i.e. /root/.gnome/mime-info.  This is entirely
distinct from the global mime settings, which are stored in
/usr/share/mime-info.  The directory /usr/share/mime-info holds default
information common to all users, while each user (including root) holds
personal customizations (and overrides) in his own ~/.gnome/mime-info
directory.  Having root modify his own mime info and then save it would
*not* affect any other user, unless root also took the extra step of
manually copying his mime information from his directory into the proper
files in /usr/gnome/mime-info.

At least, that's the way it's *supposed* to work.  I am trying to get
the first part to work, setting up an individual user's mime
configuration.  When I am done that, I will likely copy these settings
to the correct files (gnome.mime and mc.keys) in /usr/share/mime-info so
every user (including root) will start with the same setup.  Then it's
up to the individual users to modify their own mime types locally.

This is the same model used by other Linux systems, such as C-shell,
where global config commands are executed first (via /etc/csh.cshrc) and
then local overrides are processed (via ~/,cshrc).  In fact, it's the
whole point of having a true multi-user OS.  Root can first experiment
with setups in his own default directory without affecting other users. 
When root is finished experimenting and is satisfied that he has
sensible defaults, he then has a way to set all users to use those
defaults.  If users don't like those defaults, they can customize things
for themselves without affecting anyone else.

Dan   
-- 
Daniel Lyddy		daniell@cs.berkeley.edu
California PATH/UC Berkeley Vision Group
Richmond Field Station, Building 452
1357 S. 46th St, Richmond, CA 94804-4698
tel: +1 (510) 231-5659  fax: +1 (510) 231-5600
url: http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~daniell
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