GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 749677
Nautilus shows all of the files in / even for normal users
Last modified: 2015-11-11 11:55:09 UTC
Created attachment 303739 [details] Nautilus showing my custom / Right now if you go to `/` you would still see all of the files there. If your logged in as root, I can understand that, but as a normal users, its just an invitation for some users to go around and possibly break things. Currently users see this: bin boot cdrom dev etc home initrd.img initrd.img.old lib lib32 lib64 lost+found media mnt opt proc root run sbin srv sys tmp usr var vmlinuz vmlinuz.old By some minor tweaking one could turn that into this: home tmp That can be achieved by adding a file in the root folder `/.hidden` with the following content: bin boot cdrom dev etc home initrd.img initrd.img.old lib lib32 lib64 lost+found media mnt opt proc root run sbin srv sys usr var vmlinuz vmlinuz.old Every file you put in - that’s in the same directory as the file itself - will be hidden. Now, I also hide the home folder, made a link of my $username folder, and paste that in the root dir /. I also made a Applications folder with desktop files in them. We could link it to /usr/share/applications/. But the icons are not active for some reason? I copied the .desktop files to a folder in my home dir, and activated that, We could do something like that? I think that this is how all the `/` folders should look like for normal users in the future: Applications $username tmp screenshot http://i.stack.imgur.com/5UyYH.png This is just an idea. I wrote about this years ago: - http://www.eurobytes.nl/tutorials/how-to-hide-files-and-folders And to did others: - http://www.webupd8.org/2015/05/how-to-hide-files-and-folders-in-your.html - http://ubuntuguide.net/another-way-to-hide-files-folders-in-ubuntu - http://askubuntu.com/questions/243805/hide-certain-files-and-folders/ - http://askubuntu.com/questions/143315/how-to-hide-files-and-folders-in-nautilus/
what are you proposing is not show to whatever is outside $HOME to the user except mounted drives/networks?
What I am proposing is to hide everything in root(/), and only show the following folders: Applications - this is a link to /usr/share/applications/ $username - this is a link to /home/USERNAME tmp - This is the default tmp folder. Mounted drives and networks can already viewed from the sidebar and from. I don't think we should add them twice.
(In reply to blade19899 from comment #2) > What I am proposing is to hide everything in root(/), and only show the > following folders: > > Applications - this is a link to /usr/share/applications/ > $username - this is a link to /home/USERNAME > tmp - This is the default tmp folder. > > Mounted drives and networks can already viewed from the sidebar and from. I > don't think we should add them twice. The way to manage applications is gnome-software and gnome-shell, so "Applicatiosn" shouldn't be necessary. tmp looks like something that a normal usr shouldn't care at all. $username is the home folder yes. The question is, why do you want to access the root directory, if the only thing that is there are things that you shouldn't touch (applications, tmp), or they are accessible from other parts that are intended for it ($HOME, applications)? In any case, the solution is probably to use applications that doesn't care about the file system at all, and let the file manager to actually manage all things on the file system.
(In reply to blade19899 from comment #0) Thanks for the bug report. Before discussing the proposed solution, I think it is worthwhile to define and understand the problem we are trying to solve here. > Right now if you go to `/` you would still see all of the files there. If > your logged in as root, I can understand that, but as a normal users, its > just an invitation for some users to go around and possibly break things. Which things would normal users break? Can you provide examples? It's worth noting that "being able to see" doesn't imply "being able to change". Many top level directories are 'read-only' for normal users.
(In reply to António Fernandes from comment #4) > (In reply to blade19899 from comment #0) > Thanks for the bug report. > > Before discussing the proposed solution, I think it is worthwhile to define > and understand the problem we are trying to solve here. > > > Right now if you go to `/` you would still see all of the files there. If > > your logged in as root, I can understand that, but as a normal users, its > > just an invitation for some users to go around and possibly break things. > > Which things would normal users break? Can you provide examples? > > It's worth noting that "being able to see" doesn't imply "being able to > change". Many top level directories are 'read-only' for normal users. Its just my thinking. When new users want to find the 'c drive' they eventually will come across the `/` dir, and then you get bombarded with 25+- files and or folders. So, to give (Windows)users a smooth transition to Linux, it would be an idea to hide the folders most/some users don't need to know about. As for the comment made by Carlos "The way to manage applications is gnome-software and gnome-shell". Some have Unity others xfce, lxde, and mate. The Application folder is just there for the average users that wants to know where the applications reside in. If (s)he thinks they are in /Applications (or any other name) then (s)he won't be bothered looking into it deeper. This is just a thought I had when I saw the `/` dir, that might intimidate some users.
(In reply to blade19899 from comment #5) > Its just my thinking. When new users want to find the 'c drive' they > eventually will come across the `/` dir, and then you get bombarded with > 25+- files and or folders. So, to give (Windows)users a smooth transition to > Linux, it would be an idea to hide the folders most/some users don't need to > know about. That's true. And I'd go even further and say they don't even need to know about "/" itself. We probably should hide "/" by default, and only display it when "Show Hidden Files" is enabled, as discussed in bug 620313. What is your opinion? > As for the comment made by Carlos "The way to manage applications is > gnome-software and gnome-shell". Some have Unity others xfce, lxde, and > mate. Yes, but this is also true for all those desktop environments. They all have some kind of menu which displays all installed applications. > The Application folder is just there for the average users that wants > to know where the applications reside in. If (s)he thinks they are in > /Applications (or any other name) then (s)he won't be bothered looking into > it deeper. Unfortunately, we can't really pinpoint where the applications reside in. The way applications are distributed and installed in most distributions makes it impossible, because the components of an application are scattered all around the file system and mixed with the operating system files. The "/usr/share/applications" folder is not where the applications reside, and we should not make users think it is. It would be very confusing and frustrating for them to copy a *.desktop file to another computer, believing this action would copy the whole application. The good news is that there is ongoing effort to make it possible to have whole applications in a single file, residing in an "Apps" folder. Hopefully we will get there in a near future.
(In reply to António Fernandes from comment #6) > (In reply to blade19899 from comment #5) > > Its just my thinking. When new users want to find the 'c drive' they > > eventually will come across the `/` dir, and then you get bombarded with > > 25+- files and or folders. So, to give (Windows)users a smooth transition to > > Linux, it would be an idea to hide the folders most/some users don't need to > > know about. > > That's true. And I'd go even further and say they don't even need to know > about "/" itself. We probably should hide "/" by default, and only display > it when "Show Hidden Files" is enabled, as discussed in bug 620313. What is > your opinion? If people press the `File System` tab in the sidebar, what will they get to see? Just a blank dir? To hide the entire c`/` is an idea. But still think regular users will benefit from a Applications, $username, tmp. As for the Applications, if the ,desktop files are scattered around, can't just do a search for .desktop files? Like: find -name *.desktop and cp /dir/to/desktopfiles/*.desktop /newdir/to/desktopfiles/ Applications folder definitely needs some more contemplating to it?! tmp, folder: after some thinking, I actually don't see regular users using it that often??
I still feel that this is a good idea. Anything they see, they can destroy. Anything they can't see, they have no right to see, so why bother showing that to them! Basically, for a normal person, I'm telling to link `/home/USER/` to `/`. If its a root/admin account, that person can see everything, but a normal user, has system files hidden from him.
It's something that a file manager needs to handle and that lot of users rely on. Users should use other apps that are not "file managers" to handle their files or applications, like gnome-photos, gnome-documents, gnome-shell, etc. but a file manager needs to show and handle the file system as it is. so I'm going to close it WONTFIX.