[Nautilus-list] FHS & .nautilus-metafile.xml

[Paul Cubbage <paul opencountry net>]

Darin Adler wrote:

> on 1/9/01 2:40 AM, Ross Burton at r burton 180sw com wrote:
>
> > Dennis Bjorklund wrote:
> >>
> >> Nautilus have a tendency to leave files around. Especially .thumbnails and
> >> .nautilus-metafile.xml. How does this work tohgether with a multiuser
> >> system like unix. I have directories that are writable by several users.
> >> What happens when they go to the same place. Will everyone overwrite the
> >> .nautilus-metafile.xml from another user. Actually they cant. Does that
> >> mean it's just the first one that happend to go to a directory that saves
> >> the metafiles. And this metafile contains window-sizes and such. What if
> >> the first user have a 1600x1200 screen and the next have a 650x480
> >> screen...
> >>
> >> I think this is a broken behaviour, but maybe that's just me. Or maybe I
> >> don't know how it works.
> >>
> >> My question is really, what is the philosophy behind this?
> >
> > I personnally think that by default these files should be stored in a
> > single location under $HOME, with an option to write .metafile in the
> > directory if required.
>
> The option you mention already exists, although the default is to put the
> metafiles in the directories. It's in the "Speed Tradeoffs" pane in the
> Settings dialog, and is named "Read and write metadata in each folder."
>
>     -- Darin
>
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I don't know if this relates directly but there is a standard for files and
directories called the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS)
http://www.pathname.com/fhs/ and it is part of the Linux Standard Base (LSB)
http://www.linuxbase.org/

It seems to me that Eazel should follow whatever standards exist both for
community reasons and to have expected behaviors.  At Open country, we use
/usr/local/....  for all files and directories that we put on a user's system.
Distros are supposed to stay out of those areas and the major ones that we've
tested certainly do (although they sure fool around with placement and/or naming
of other "standard" directories).

--
Paul Cubbage COO 408-248-8530 Cell
Open Country, Inc.
3777 Steven's Creek Blvd. #340
Santa Clara, CA 95051
paul opencountry net 408-248-8530