GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 702685
show-advanced-permissions setting no longer present in dconf-editor
Last modified: 2016-11-24 20:26:23 UTC
Created attachment 247285 [details] Permissions tab with "show-advanced-permissions" dconf-editor setting enabled When using Nautilus and right-clicking on a file > Properties, user is presented with a permissions tab. The default UI for this permissions tab is horribly difficult to understand and calibrate and lacks any sort of user-friendliness. Accordingly, I need Nautilus to display the alternate view: what has always been called "advanced-permissions" view. Here is what the "advanced-permissions" look like: see attachment. using dconf-editor, I have always been able to go to setting dconf-editor > org > gnome > nautilus > preferences > show-advanced-permissions and change the appearance of the permissions to this "advanced" presentation which makes the permissions much easier to understand and calibrate. Why is this setting missing from dconf-editor in Ubuntu 13.04? A functional problem with not having "advanced permissions" view is that there is no GUI way of giving only the file Owner Execute-capability. Without the "advanced permissions" view, setting Execute on a file necessarily means giving Execute-power to 1)Owner 2)Group and 3)Others--something that is not only frustrating but also a security risk. With "advanced permissions" view, Execute can be assigned to only the Owner. Advanced Permissions View is much easier to understand and calibrate and it should be a presentation option for users of GNOME. If there is another way to activate this "advanced-permissions" view other than the dconf-editor, please let me know. Thanks.
This mode was removed here: https://git.gnome.org/browse/nautilus/commit/?id=87cfa404d845cbd59b7bf5c95931aa930dbe3d15 author William Jon McCann <jmccann@redhat.com> 2012-08-20 18:19:26 (GMT) commit 87cfa404d845cbd59b7bf5c95931aa930dbe3d15 (patch) Remove advanced permissions This mode is worse than useless because it is impossible to find, it complicates the ongoing maintanence of the dialog, and if there is important configuration in it we should be offering it by default without a special hidden mode.
(In reply to comment #0) Thanks for the bug report. > When using Nautilus and right-clicking on a file > Properties, user is > presented with a permissions tab. The default UI for this permissions tab is > horribly difficult to understand and calibrate and lacks any sort of > user-friendliness. The default ought to be the easiest to understand and the most user-friendly. If it is not, it should be fixed. Which elements do you find difficult to understand and why? What can be done to improve it? > A functional problem with not having "advanced permissions" view is that there > is no GUI way of giving only the file Owner Execute-capability. Without the > "advanced permissions" view, setting Execute on a file necessarily means giving > Execute-power to 1)Owner 2)Group and 3)Others--something that is not only > frustrating but also a security risk. With "advanced permissions" view, Execute > can be assigned to only the Owner. Seems to be a valid point. The commit message quoted in the previous comment says "if there is important configuration in it we should be offering it by default", so it may be worth filing a bug requesting this specific enhancement.
(In reply to comment #1) > Remove advanced permissions > > This mode is worse than useless because it is impossible to find. If it is impossible to find, make it findable, don't remove it. Regardless, it was an important feature that had capabilities (both visually in how it presents the Permissions-State & in how Permissions could be configured) that the default dialog does not have. Show-Advanced-Permissions show be brought back to Nautilus.
I submitted bug report here: https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=707484 Thanks for feedback guys. Hopefully this bug will get looked at because not having a way to set execute-priviledge with a GUI when using the newer GNOME versions makes using GNOME a pain. Hopefully this bug will get elevated in importance because an important feature is now missing from GNOME. > > Seems to be a valid point. The commit message quoted in the previous comment > says "if there is important configuration in it we should be offering it by > default", so it may be worth filing a bug requesting this specific enhancement.
That the hidden advanced permission setting mode was removed (object of this report) is a deliberate decision and as such is not a bug. That some things cannot be achieved with the current permission tab is another issue and should be covered by other bug reports. Some have already been opened. If there are other missing things that have not been covered by existing bug reports, feel free to open new ones about them.