linux-kernel - Heads-up: Linux make menuconfig .config vs. XDG_CONFIG_HOME ~/.config/ clash

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Message-ID: <20110602182431.GA26282@rhlx01.hs-esslingen.de>
Date:	Thu, 2 Jun 2011 20:24:31 +0200
From:	Andreas Mohr <andi@...as.de>
To:	linux-kbuild@...r.kernel.org
Cc:	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, Roman Zippel <zippel@...ux-m68k.org>,
	Michal Marek <mmarek@...e.cz>, Waldo Bastian <bastian@....org>,
	Ryan Lortie <desrt@...rt.ca>,
	Lennart Poettering <lennart@...ttering.net>,
	Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>
Subject: Heads-up: Linux make menuconfig .config vs. XDG_CONFIG_HOME
 ~/.config/ clash - perhaps resolve it while 3.0 appears?

Hello all,

I just discovered a Linux kernel make menuconfig .config file
accidentally situated in the home directory of a shell account
(simply scp:d over without much thought, thus directly ending up in main
user home on that machine, something which can happen quite easily
for a number of other reasons as well).
I then realized the potentially fatal ramifications of this.

XXXXXX:/tmp$ touch mytest
XXXXXX:/tmp$ mkdir mytest
mkdir: cannot create directory `mytest': File exists

XDG Base Directory Specification
  http://standards.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/basedir-spec-latest.html
says:

"$XDG_CONFIG_HOME defines the base directory relative to which user
specific configuration files should be stored. If $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is
either not set or empty, a default equal to $HOME/.config should be
used."
And that mechanism is exactly what a ton of Linux userspace apps
(and hopefully many more in future) are already making use of
to store their configuration data in a manner
that's more friendly to user home directories.

It may thus be strongly advisable to rename the default name of the
make menuconfig kernel .config file (perhaps .config_lx / .config_linux ?)
to completely sidestep such a (mostly user-triggered)
problematic clash in future.

And (I cannot help but think of this) now that lx 3.0 is in -rc
this might still be an especially appropriate moment to do it ;)
(one would have to think of potential compatibility issues though)

Thanks for listening,

Andreas Mohr
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