On Mon, Jun 30, 2003 at 10:57:40PM +0200, Matthias Urlichs wrote: > Hi, Mathieu Roy wrote: > > > Gimp and many others software creates dotfiles. Because from the start > > you configure it (cache size, temp dir). > > > Why should I want a per-user configuration option for temp file location? > > > For their size? Apart from web browser cache, what can be so big? > > > So? Browser caches should be deleted too, when the browser is deinstalled.
What if I want to keep the history, bookmarks, or whatever.... perhaps even for an enhanced version (think Mozilla, Galeon, Epiphany and all of that). > Anyway, there's email readers (my .sylpheed is 73 MBytes), news readers, > picture browsers, ... my ~/.sylpheed is bigger than my ~/.kde. 73 Mbytes? What does sylpheed save in its directory? Sent mail, perhaps? If so, I personally would be *very* pissed off if uninstalling the package would delete all my sent mail (even if it were a custom binary format). Now, if one removes or purges, say, KDE to install an unofficial version... would (s)he loose all his icons and configuration? It would be nice, perhaps, having a tool to do it "by hand", but I don't think everybody wants it to be done automatically when removing packages. > > Well designed software that change their configuration file should be > > able to handle an older configuration file. > > That's not the point. The point is that a program will never be able to > change the default for any option from FOO to BAR, because FOO is > hardcoded in every user's configuration file -- and it can't know whether > the user has FOO in there because they explicitly set it, or because it's > the default. Yes, but I don't think it's worth the effort (and the risk of pissing off lots of people). Why not simply put a note in README.Debian, if it's that important? Regards, -- Esteban Manchado Velázquez <zoso*demiurgo*org> - http://www.demiurgo.org No software patents in Europe! - eurolinux.org - proinnova.hispalinux.es Join Amnesty International - http://www.amnesty.org/actnow
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