Re: preferences api

[Richard Frith-Macdonald]

On 16 Aug 2004, at 08:08, Rogelio M.Serrano Jr. wrote:

> > I'm not sure what you mean by this ... programs don't have 
> > home directories
> > under unix ... users do.
> > Programs are run by/as particular users.
>
> Well the user associated with the daemon needs to have a home 
> directory. And if we use NSUserDefaults that means the setting for the 
> programs will be placed in the users home directory. If we run my 
> NetcconfigD as nobody then there must be a valid user named nobody.

In the sense that there must be a directory containing the defaults 
file(s) from which the information can be read,
yes there must be a valid user.  I think, on most systems, if the home 
directory for a user is not specified in the password file, the root 
directory is used, and the defaults database for the user would 
therefore be placed in /GNUstep.
Of course, since the user has no write access, the defaults directory 
could not be created automatically and you would have to create it 
manually as root, then change its ownership.
On many systems the 'nobody' account is specially set up to have a home 
directory specified, but for the directory to be non-existent.  In that 
case, the system GNUsteprc would need to be used to direct the defaults 
system to read the user defaults from an alternative location (and the 
GNUstep system would need to be set up just for use by that account).
However, running programs as a non-existent user is really working hard 
at trying to break the defaults system!