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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    Re: Multiple KDE setups
From:       Andreas Pour <pour () mieterra ! com>
Date:       1999-05-05 6:36:12
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Navindra Umanee wrote:

> Montreal Wed May  5 01:01:12 1999
>
> Carsten Pfeiffer <carpdjih@cetus.zrz.TU-Berlin.DE> wrote:
> > On Wed, Apr 28, 1999 at 07:45:55PM -0700, Kurt Granroth wrote:
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > > What if this was user settable?  If this was the case, then I could set the
> > > local kde dir just before starting up KDE on each workstation and I would be
> > > ensured that my special settings would hold only for that workstation.
> > >
> > > Something like so could work:
> > >
> > >    QString localdir(getenv("KDELOCALDIR"));
> > >    if (localdir.isEmpty())
> > >       return ( QDir::homeDirPath() + "/.kde" );
> > >    else
> > >       return ( localdir );
> > >
> > > So I could have $HOME/.kde-hi and $HOME/.kde-lo and two setup scripts
> > >
> > >    #!/bin/sh
> > >    KDELOCALDIR=$HOME/.kde-hi startkde
> >
> > where is the problem of making .kde-hi and .kde-lo and create a symlink
> > from .kde to the appropriate directory in a login script? Nothing would
> > have to be changed.
>
> IIRC, Irix uses a combination of symlinks and directories.
>
> lrwxrwxrwx  1 root           12 Sep 27  1998 .desktop-barbie -> .desktop-ken
> drwx------  5 navindra      512 May 23  1996 .desktop-ken
> lrwxrwxrwx  1 root           12 Sep 27  1998 .desktop-skipper -> .desktop-ken
> lrwxrwxrwx  1 root           12 Sep 27  1998 .desktop-tiffany -> .desktop-ken
>
> The first time you would ever log on to an Indy, it would ask you
> whether you wanted to use completely independent settings for that
> machine or if you simply wanted to use any previous settings you had
> created on another Indy machine.  If you answered the first, it would
> create a new directory .desktop-<hostname> and if you answered by the
> second, it would simply make .desktop-<hostname> a symlink to the
> previous settings.
>
> Disclaimer: All this information is from memory, years ago.

This sounds like it would work, but unfortunately breaks source and binary
compatability with existing apps (many have "getenv(HOME) + "/.kde"" hardcoded into
the program).

There is one way, though, that depending on what machine you are on you can use a
different ".kde" subdir w/out any software changes.  Assuming you have proper
permissions in /etc/exports of "host" (presumably you have this already since you
are mounting $HOME remotely), you just need an entry in /etc/fstab like:

    host:/home/user/.desktop-ken       /home/user/.kde             nfs
auto,user,exec,rw,bg,soft  1


Now .destkop-ken can be a symlink to .kde or its own directory tree.

The obvious drawback is you need the sys-admin to get involved for creating the
above /etc/fstab entry.  But, it is only the sysadmin of the local machine on which
you are working, which often is you :-).

Regards,

Andreas Pour

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