Re: per user config in debian-jr packages

On Fri, 23 Feb 2007, Ben Armstrong wrote:

> This isn't quite what I had in mind.  Currently, Debian
> knows about a single set of site-wide configs in /etc but doesn't have
> any concept of "user profile".  I cited menu as an example of
> policy-backed Debian infrastructure and did not mean to say that what
> I'm after is strictly per-user menus.

Well, I understand that this was just an example.  But why not starting
with implementing this example.  There is room below /etc/cdd for some
configuration stuff and you might probably be able to do something
with symlinks.

> What I'd like is for roles to be
> definable by packages or administrators and then recognized by packages
> that are "profile aware" to provide alternative configurations per
> profile.  Thus, a single user could pass from profile A to B to C and
> in each profile see a different default desktop layout, different
> menus, etc., all without making customizations to the user's
> environment in their home dir.

That's why I would suggest to use
         /etc/cdd/<cdd-name>/<cdd-role>/<pkg-name>.conf
or something like that.

> What I'm missing for this concept is a mechanism.  I know that to
> facilitate multiple packages enhancing a package, monolithic config
> files are often split in Debian (e.g. /etc/logrotate.d).  I'm not sure
> how profiles would be supported at the desktop layer.  I guess this is
> a problem debian-desktop might have some interest in since it enters
> onto their turf.

I'm keen on hearing if there is a solution from debian-desktop.  In
this case we could wrap this solution in a CDD-ish way as I mentioned
above.

Kind regards

            Andreas.
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