Timeline for Why does most software break or refuse to continue immediately if the folder where their data is stored is not available? [closed]
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
29 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Oct 25, 2021 at 19:24 | comment | added | cwallach | @Phill W. Lets think about this. The program can first check ~/Library. If the config is not present then check ~/Library2. | |
| Oct 25, 2021 at 7:33 | comment | added | Phill W. | @cwallach: And having created ~/Library2, in which to store preference and stuff, how would Chrome - or any other program - know to use that location in future, given that such a "preference" would be stored in ~/Library2! The program has to start somewhere. (Don't mention the Registry) | |
| Oct 23, 2021 at 20:57 | history | closed |
gnat David Arno Doc Brown |
Opinion-based | |
| S Oct 22, 2021 at 3:20 | vote | accept | CommunityBot | ||
| S Oct 22, 2021 at 3:19 | vote | accept | CommunityBot | ||
| S Oct 22, 2021 at 3:20 | |||||
| Oct 21, 2021 at 17:31 | comment | added | haylem | @user16217248: it could, but it would inherently be a less safe user experience. What you want would favor practicality at the cost of a potential data loss. It's not something are generally super keen with. | |
| Oct 21, 2021 at 16:23 | comment | added | user403833 | @haylem It could alert the user that changes cannot be saved and continue instead of quitting | |
| Oct 21, 2021 at 0:58 | comment | added | haylem | Because sometimes it's better to quit immediately (and give a precise reason why, so it can be addressed) rather than to keep going and let you know 3 months later that a lot of stuff was lost and you could have avoided that. | |
| Oct 20, 2021 at 22:55 | review | Close votes | |||
| Oct 23, 2021 at 20:57 | |||||
| Oct 20, 2021 at 20:26 | comment | added | Caleth | @RobertHarvey or "Google don't care if people deliberatly break their Chrome install" | |
| Oct 20, 2021 at 20:23 | comment | added | Caleth |
@cwallach how many ~/LibraryNs should you try before you conclude that you can't create any directories? And how do you reconcile ~/Library2 that happened during last week's network slowdown with this week's ~/Library5, with the original ~/Library that's available again now that Jim plugged that cable back in?
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| Oct 20, 2021 at 20:06 | answer | added | Mike Robinson | timeline score: -3 | |
| S Oct 20, 2021 at 18:57 | history | edited | lennon310 | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
Fixed grammar in title
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| S Oct 20, 2021 at 18:57 | history | suggested | Peter M | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
Fixed grammar in title
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| Oct 20, 2021 at 18:50 | comment | added | cwallach | Most software is lacking in robustness. If a robust program is unable to store its data in the preferred directory ~/Library, it could make a secondary directory such as ~/Library2. | |
| Oct 20, 2021 at 18:32 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| S Oct 20, 2021 at 18:57 | |||||
| Oct 20, 2021 at 18:05 | vote | accept | CommunityBot | ||
| S Oct 22, 2021 at 3:19 | |||||
| Oct 20, 2021 at 17:58 | comment | added | Ben Voigt |
I think 1201ProgramAlarm has hit the nail on the head. If the software can't create its directory and files with the permissions it chooses, then they may have entirely inappropriate permissions resulting in unauthorized disclosure of information. For example, SSH checks the permissions on ~/.ssh/authorized_keys and errors if you much with it.
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| Oct 20, 2021 at 17:37 | answer | added | Robert Harvey | timeline score: 2 | |
| Oct 20, 2021 at 17:31 | comment | added | 1201ProgramAlarm | Because it is unexpected, and continuing to execute in that case can just create more problems. It could be indicative of a more serious problem, a security threat, a misconfiguration, or even a hardware problem. Any attempt to continue execution may work, may behave sporadically, crash out later (with an error that does not indicate the root problem), or even give some malicious process access to data it shouldn't have access to. | |
| Oct 20, 2021 at 17:27 | comment | added | Dan Wilson | Software is designed with certain assumptions in mind, like the assumption that it will be able to use a specific directory on disk. I'm willing to bet that assumption is correct 99.999% of the time, so from Google's perspective, it's not an issue worth spending time on. | |
| Oct 20, 2021 at 17:21 | comment | added | Robert Harvey | In Chrome's specific case, the answer is most likely "if we can't even make our temporary folder available, something has gone horribly wrong, and we're giving up." | |
| Oct 20, 2021 at 17:20 | comment | added | user403833 | @RobertHarvey Chrome was just an example of an app that will break if I make its folder unavailable | |
| Oct 20, 2021 at 17:17 | comment | added | Robert Harvey | And I think the answer to that question is "Because Google never anticipated someone stomping all over their Application Support folder in this manner." | |
| Oct 20, 2021 at 17:16 | comment | added | Robert Harvey | I think your real question is "How can I so easily break Chrome?" | |
| Oct 20, 2021 at 17:15 | comment | added | user403833 | @RobertHarvey If the software in question is a browser, as useful as a browser that is always in private or incognito mode | |
| Oct 20, 2021 at 17:13 | comment | added | Robert Harvey | Thought experiment: how useful is a piece of software if it cannot save changes to its state? | |
| S Oct 20, 2021 at 17:09 | review | First questions | |||
| Oct 20, 2021 at 17:17 | |||||
| S Oct 20, 2021 at 17:09 | history | asked | user403833 | CC BY-SA 4.0 |