GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 389033
"Working with files" - include basic material about files on unix based systems
Last modified: 2007-01-16 22:39:08 UTC
At the moment the "Working with files" section of the Gnome user guide only deals with how to work nautilus. It would be nice to include some information about how files work in unix based systems, maybe in the introduction. I'll attach the material we have for Ubuntu (pruned for irrelevant material). The attachment has three sections - directories and file systems, permissions, and users and groups. You can't copy this material yet, but if you think it's a good idea, I'll try and get the permission of the Ubuntu team for you to include it and relicense it. In the worst case situation, you can rewrite it. Let me know.
Created attachment 78841 [details] Obsolete file
Including that material or something similar would be great. But... doesn't Gnome run on all sorts of platforms and not just linux? I don't know who to check about that with. The website's About section is out of date and the guy writing the new version is... um, me. Ah what the heck. Yeah, let's include it :)
I'd deliberately used "unix based systems" in the bug report, but you may be right, I'm not sure if the same principles apply. Anyhow, I'll check about the copyright.
It's definitely available on non Linux platforms. See for instance http://packages.debian.org/stable/gnome/gnome-control-center .
Erm... that's a link to Debian Linux! You might be getting architectures mixed up with operating systems. Anyhow, as above, hopefully most of that material is also suitable for any unix-like system.
Nope. See the bottom of the page. My point was that if there are debian gnome packages on all major architectures, gnome must run on all of them. :)
Yes, it does run on all of them. However those are architectures, which is not what we're talking about. (Debian) Linux runs on all of those architectures. The question was whether other operating systems (such as BSD, Solaris etc) also run Gnome, which of course they do. Again, it's all irrelevant hopefully, because the material to be added should be neutral as to operating system.
My mistake. I misread Joachim's post.
My mistake too -- I said linux when I meant unix-y. The OS option in bugzilla has entries like Windows, Mac, BeOS, etc, but the Wikipedia article on Gnome says 'GNOME now runs on most Unix-like systems'.
anyway, on the Ubuntu list Matthew Flaschen pointed out that the previous version of this material was dual-licensed, one of which was GFDL - so you would be free to take that material under the usual conditions and do with it what you wish. We only fixed a small number of bugs since that version - and no one on the Ubuntu list has objected to Gnome using this material, nor are they ever likely to. You hereby have permission to use the file I posted. However, we've had a few more bug reports on it which we fixed since I posted the attachment, I'll make a new attachment.
Created attachment 78928 [details] New attachment Here's the file, containing material on file permissions and directory structure. On reflection, it strikes me that Users and Group (both in terms of the unix concept and in terms of the Gnome Administration application) should probably be dealt with separately. Are either of these dealt with already by the Gnome documentation?
Thanks :) I'll look at adding it to the UG this weekend. I think there's a little bit on users and groups within the section on Nautilus preferences. That could be merged in with your users and groups section in your first attachment -- see what you think. (Aside: IIRC, there are far too many bizarre groups listed on Ubuntu in file properties, like 'floppy', 'cdrom' and so on, which makes it a confusing topic.)
Whoa, long weekend! Sorry about the delay. I've added the section on files to the start of 'Managing Your Files and Folders', though I'm not sure that exposing the reader to the wonders that live in the the unix root folder that date back from the days when nobody could type words longer than three letters is a good idea.... but I'll save thinking about where better to put it for another day. What does 'provides a lost+found system for files that exist under the root (/) directory' mean? I'm completely unenlightened by it. For the section on permissions, I've merged with what's already there. <phrase>&home-folder;</phrase> ?
(In reply to comment #13) > Whoa, long weekend! Sorry about the delay. Thanks! > I've added the section on files to the start of 'Managing Your Files and > Folders', though I'm not sure that exposing the reader to the wonders that live > in the the unix root folder that date back from the days when nobody could type > words longer than three letters is a good idea.... but I'll save thinking about > where better to put it for another day. You're right - there may be some things you can safely remove, only highlighting the important ones, or generally rewrite things to make them a bit simpler. > What does 'provides a lost+found system for files that exist under the root (/) > directory' mean? I'm completely unenlightened by it. God knows. I'd bin it! > For the section on permissions, I've merged with what's already there. Great! > <phrase>&home-folder;</phrase> ? &home-folder; expands to <menuchoice><guimenu>Places</guimenu><guimenuitem>Home Folder</guimenuitem></menuchoice> Matt