Removing "symlinks" in ~/

Sector11 · 2017-06-18 20:54:13

How safe is it to remove symlinks in ~/

Namely:

~/.fonts - symlinked to: ~/.local/share/fonts (both empty)
~/.icons - that has: /default/index.theme - symlinked to: ~/.local/share/icons that also has: /default/index.theme
~/.themes - symlinked to: ~/.local/share/themes (both empty}

One could simply create:
~/.fonts
~/.icons - complete with: /default/index.theme
~/.themes

and use those directly.

I'm asking for the same reason that other re-preinstalled directories - are now gone, I don't want them.
~/Pictures
~/Pictures/wallpapers
~/Videos
~/Documents
~/etc.

johnraff · 2017-06-19 01:04:40

Some of those symlinks are there because of changing standards. Some directories that used to be directly under ~/ have been moved to ~/.local/share. The latter location is more future-proof. It's about where applications will look for certain files. For example, old documentation will tell people to put downloaded themes in ~/.themes, but the standard is now ~/.local/share/themes. Some apps will still find themes OK in ~/.themes, but in the future only ~/.local/share/themes is likely to work.

The symlinks are an attempt to maximize the chance of things working out of the box.
With ~/.themes - symlinked to: ~/.local/share/themes then they are the same directory. Whichever place a user drops a theme it will end up in ~/.local/share/themes, and whichever place an app looks for a theme it will find it OK.

Feel free to delete any of this stuff you like, as long as you're ready to deal with the consequences...

Sector11 · 2017-06-19 02:17:24

That's why I asked "how safe"?

johnraff wrote:

Feel free to delete any of this stuff you like, as long as you're ready to deal with the consequences...

in other words you don't know.

johnraff · 2017-06-19 02:37:02

^I don't think that's a fair comment. I explained why those symlinks were there, and suggested what might happen if you deleted them.

But, no, I don't know exactly how you intend to use your system in the future, and whether deleting those symlinks will cause problems for you. That's something you have to decide for yourself.

EDIT But if you want a default answer that will work in most cases, it's:

It's not safe to delete those symlinks.

Last edited by johnraff (2017-06-19 02:41:34)

Sector11 · 2017-06-19 04:02:25

I'm sorry. I'm going crazy here and your explanation of why they are there was perfect ... and your edited answer even better.

That's something you have to decide for yourself.

Yea, I guess that the huts and bolts of it - in a nutshell so to speak.

Again - sorry.

johnraff · 2017-06-19 04:55:47

^Hey, no sweat. I thought "that's not the usual S11" and figured something wasn't going well somewhere else. Now I've just read in your Firefox thread that you've been getting all sorts of system troubles recently. As I said there: please post about it. If it shows some underlying hidden problem in our setup then other people than you might be happy to know the fix.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2017-06-19 06:50:05

johnraff wrote:

please post about it

Internal investigations are ongoing (by PM), they will be made public when we can untangle things a little bit.

Just for confirmation: BunsenLabs installs symlinks in $HOME?

I don't think my Debian jessie box has anything like that, is it a #! thing?

johnraff · 2017-06-19 08:18:11

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

Just for confirmation: BunsenLabs installs symlinks in $HOME?
I don't think my Debian jessie box has anything like that, is it a #! thing?

Yes it does, and no it's not a #! thing it's a BL thing. These three that S11 mentioned:
~/.fonts - symlinked to: ~/.local/share/fonts
~/.icons - symlinked to: ~/.local/share/icons
~/.themes - symlinked to: ~/.local/share/themes
There's also a symlink in ~/.local/share/applications/mimeapps.list pointing to ~/.config/mimeapps.list

They are there (this was discussed somewhere in the development area quite a long time ago) because the ~/.local/share location is now the freedesktop standard (except for mimeapps.list) , and the directories under ~/ are deprecated. Unfortunately, some apps (and some users) still look in the old locations, hence the fix. The symlinks should become unnecessary some day in the far future...

#1 2017-06-18 20:54:13

Removing "symlinks" in ~/

#2 2017-06-19 01:04:40

Re: Removing "symlinks" in ~/

#3 2017-06-19 02:17:24

Re: Removing "symlinks" in ~/

#4 2017-06-19 02:37:02

Re: Removing "symlinks" in ~/

#5 2017-06-19 04:02:25

Re: Removing "symlinks" in ~/

#6 2017-06-19 04:55:47

Re: Removing "symlinks" in ~/

#7 2017-06-19 06:50:05

Re: Removing "symlinks" in ~/

#8 2017-06-19 08:18:11

Re: Removing "symlinks" in ~/

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