David Brownell wrote:
IMHO, applications shouldn't create or modify those files. The potential for conflicts is too great. What if the user wants two different applications to be able to access the same device?Right now, there is nothing in the standard hotplug userspace that makes this easy for anyone. It encourages applications to do the hideous thing and do whatever they think is best.We should provide some sort of standard support where an application can install a configuration of what devices it can support and the OS does the rest. This is the chance to set a standard.Since the last hotplug release, the way to do this is: - /etc/hotplug/usb/FOO.usermap ... what devices supported - /etc/hotplug/usb/FOO ... what to do when they're connected
The only situation I can see where an application should register itself with hotplug is so that it can be "auto-launched" when the device is plugged in. I think this is what Johannes was getting at, although maybe he was thinking of something more complex. I'm thinking of something like /home/mark/.usb/VID:PID.autorun, that contains:
* /usr/bin/xsane --device=%DEVPATH%
/usr/bin/gimp --acquire=%DEVPATH%
with the '*' indicating the default action. If there's no default then a window would pop up asking the user what to run.
What it comes down to is that the user should be in control of the hotplug policy at all times, not the applications at install time. Otherwise you end up with crap like Windows, where some lame app starts whenever you plug in your camera, and you can't disable it without hacking the registry.
Regardless of how it's done, the policy for setting permissions and taking action on connect/disconnect should be kept very separate. Setting of permissions is a system-wide policy that needs to be controlled by root, and actions are a per-user policy that should be settable by anyone.
Ideally, there would be a permissions "database" with entries like:
{VID=0x05a9, PID=0x0511} mark:mark:644
{CLASS=0x08} mark:mark:600
Having a standardized format like that (vs. putting chown/chmod/etc in /etc/hotplug/usb/FOO), makes it easy to write a graphical config tool. That file could also be used to infer who should have their autorun scripts executed. The kernel could even be notified of this info so that it can revoke the permissions when the device is unplugged.
--
Mark McClelland
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