Re: [PATCH] [RFC] Recursive file permissions

[Alexander Larsson <alexl redhat com>]

On Mon, 2005-12-26 at 01:26 +0100, Christian Neumair wrote:
> The attached patch is meant to implement recursive file permission
> changes [1]. I'm eagerly awaiting feedback, in particular whether the
> GUI offers enough usability for you.
> 
> [1] http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=44767

I must say I much prefer your later blog posting. I still don't think
its ideal though. Also, i very much like this:
http://www.foo-projects.org/~benny/tmp/thunar-permissions-chooser-20060108.png

One thing I think that can help a lot, both in the normal UI and in the
recursive apply mode is to separate out executable into two widgets, one
that handles "executability of files" and one that handles "listability
of folders" (the last one won't be visible if you only select files of
course). That way you don't have to know what executable bit means for
folders, and you could set different execute bit for folders and files
in the recursive case. 

Also, i don't think instant apply recursive apply of permissions is
right. Its gonna be very slow to apply each change you make (you might
want to make multiple changes), and you can easily loose a lot of data
(permission settings) if you accidentally do something wrong.

My current opinion is that we should take the thunar dialog, with is
pretty similar to yours, but with the execute bit moved out of the
access dropdowns. It also has IMHO better layout and nice icons. 
To this we add:
1) Checkboxes under group and other access that says "Allow these users
to list files in folders" (or something like that). (We assume that
users always wants the execute bit set for themselves on folder, but if
a selected file has this off we can add it in so that the user can fix
it).
2) Add an "Apply to files in enclosed folders" (want better string?)
button that applies the permission settings to files and folders inside
selected folders. 
3) Add a "details" button

Some notes:

We don't want "None" in the list of alternatives for the user
permissions. There is no need to make your own files non-readable to
you. Nor is there any need to make your own folders non-listable to you.

The execute checkbox toggles all execute perms. I don't think there is a
need for more detailed exectute rights in the standard perms view.

The advanced dialog looks a bit like yours, but without the subfolder
settings. Instead it has two columns for the execute bit "execute file"
and "list folder contents", and there is a recursive apply button. 

Also, maybe we should have the advanced widget ("details") appear in the
same place as normal widget instead of its own dialog. Dialogs from
dialogs is a bit weird, and i think it makes sense to "switch to
advanced mode" even if looks a bit like tab-in-tab.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
 Alexander Larsson                                            Red Hat, Inc 
                   alexl redhat com    alla lysator liu se 
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