Re: defaults randomly being overwritten?

[Pascal Bourguignon]

> From: Tim Harrison <tim@linuxstep.org>
> Date: Fri, 19 Jul 2002 22:44:22 -0400
> 
> Ian Jones wrote:
> 
> > wanted to change, I notice this has been re-introduced, but now every 2 
> > or 3 times I open the Preferences.app my object / key values are gone 
> > from NSGlobalDomain{}. I thought it was something I had done incorrectly 
> 
> I figured I'd jump in here.  I haven't had the time to look for what's 
> causing the problem, but more often than not, my entire defaults are 
> wiped out by something (I'm assuming it's an application, but I'm not 
> sure which one).
> 
> This forces me to inquire as to why all defaults are kept in one file? 
> Apparently, this is historic behaviour, but if an application has the 
> ability to completely wipe my defaults, that's not good.
> 
> Would it not be a better idea to implement defaults such that each 
> application gets it's own file within the defaults directory in the 
> Users domain?  This would potentially prevent one errant application 
> from destroying all the defaults from every other application.
> 
> Also, I don't know if this magic defaults destruction is a GNUstep 
> issue, or an application issue.  But, either way, would it not be 
> beneficial if GNUstep didn't permit the NSGlobalDomain or any other 
> associated "system" defaults to be touched by applications?
> 
> Just a thought.  I'm sure, as per my history with this mailing list, 
> this will cause a massive flame war. ;)

Defaults destruction is due to a bug.   If a bug can erase (part of) a
file,   another  bug  can   as  well   delete  several   files,  can't
it. Unfortunately, we're not working with a capability system <eagerly
waiting for EROS>.

One one hand,  I don't like to multiply small files,  but on the other
hand, it  seems it's less probable  to have a bug  erase several files
than a bug overwriting part of a file.

-- 
__Pascal_Bourguignon__                   http://www.informatimago.com/
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