User directories integration - request for help

[Patrice Dumas]

On Mon, Mar 19, 2007 at 11:35:10AM +0100, Alexander Larsson wrote:
> 
> I don't think this is largely different from creating them at login.
> Many dirs will be created at first login anyway (Desktop, Templates,
> maybe Public), and others will be created as you go. Seems very similar

Why should those dirs be created?

> to the create-at-login approach except the code needs to be duplicated
> all over the place and the homedirectory is slowly modified over time
> instead of just once.

It is very different for the user who want to keep control over their
desktop.

> > Unexperienced users don't want something specific. Except if you think
> > that what unexperienced users want is what is in windows.
> 
> Ah, the old "you just want us to be windows" argument. Lets just say we
> disagree on this point without having to fall into name-calling.

It is not 'name-calling'. My (limited) experience is that unexperienced
users that haven't used anything are not biased toward anything, while
those who have ever used something are biased against that something,
how bad it could be.

> Its pretty bad to create visible folders in the homedir that expose the
> internals of an applications. However, things are different if you're
> designing an application for the explicit purpose of creating visible
> directories in the home directory. We can of course disagree on whether
> such an application should exist or not...

The problem mis not with creating visible directories in the home
directory, but about creating them automatically.

> > How can you do 'Directories specified in your config file that has been
> > removed will be changed in the config file to point to $HOME.' without
> > something magic?
> 
> While we scan the list of the users already configured directories we
> call stat() to see if they are stale, if so we reset it to something
> that is not stale. How is an if and a stat "magic".

How do you distinguish between new directory to be created and directory 
removed? Because a removed directory ios already in the config file, 
and a directory to be added is not in the config file?

--
Pat