Allow Apps to request static --filesystem= permission #1405
Replies: 4 comments 19 replies
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In order for a change in a static permission to take effect, a app restart is required. This is a interruption in the workflow for the user and the app looses all runtime state. |
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this is a good point and indeed an issue, but could still work. Apps could set themselves up and then restart themselves, or is this not possible? |
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We would need a restart portal. |
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Thanks for reporting this issue here. Here are some questions to clarify things:
I really don't understand. Could you tell what is the case by giving a concrete example?
What do you expect instead? Filenames? Filepaths? And most importantly, for what purpose?
Could you tell what configuration? Remember the save directory?
What are you expecting? Have access to a permanent save location like Thanks! |
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a native app is an app that runs unsandboxed and sees the entire filesystem keepassxc needs access to the file that it opened previously. a .kdbx file, a keepass database. This file is opened with the portal, but then an incorrect path is shown. Instead, when giving the app access to the exact location of that file manually and then opening the file, afaik the correct path this shown and it can auto-open it on next restarts. no, the point is that the filemanager is not a good system for every app. Imagine a gallery app, this is the filemanager, but should have access to multiple directories, also custom ones. This is not easy to do, not possible on GNOME without flatseal. I open my password manager, that unlocks the vault. I dont open the kdbx file. The filemanager method works often but also often not. A ton of apps have internal filemanagers, which you may not use (like in libreoffice) or may use. |
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portals support this
what do you mean by incorrect path? Even if the path looks confusing for human it's not a problem for app. libreofice doesn't support portals |
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@boredsquirrel: I installed KeePassXC (version 2.7.9 from flathub) and removed the My versions:
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@Mikenux so if you close it again and reopen it, can it automatically open the previously used DB without needing to select it again from a filemanager? Then this may not be needed in this case |
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Yes. |
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Maybe for libraries/collections (music, pictures, games) if performance is an issue or there are other issues that are not fixable in a reasonable time (regarding the FUSE filesystem). |
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not sure what fuse has to do here. Afaik this is needed for many apps that are kind of filemanagers themselves. that display the name of a file and its correct location. These locations would be incorrect if they only used portals. And not having access to the correct files and directories may cause issues when passing these files on to other apps? not sure. |
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portal use fuse filesystem |
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This is problematic if the user uses it to copy and paste. But developers use the |
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Snap just got a portal update that at least added the ability to grant access to a folder. But snap is also different, using apparmor, and maybe better for displaying the actual filepath and not a mounted one |
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snap uses same portal as flatpak. folder support exist for along time. |
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may only be implemented in GNOME then |
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Are you using flatpak or snap? What are your versions (flatpak/snap, xdg-desktop-portal, desktop environment)? |
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Hey, I would like to share, why I think that we will never have portals working for every app, and that this is normal and instead a different method should be used.
The portal method doesnt work with many apps.
I would expect an app to implement a check if some file exists, if it doesnt send some message to the system with an info "I want this permission", the system opens a popup "APP wants permanent permission to X", I click yes and then it gets that permission permanently.
Nextcloud on MacOS does this for example. Kinda like on Android.
Instead when using portals, mounted directories have weird /var/run/ directories with strange IDs, and apps may look at the wrong place after a restart.
Instead, the portal could include a checkbox "permanent". If this is used, a flatpak override is done to add a permanent access to the real dir path, not mounted. A note "this is only applied on restart" would make sense.
This is especially needed for custom locations outside the xdg dirs, like /home/user/sync/pictures/random/edits for some image editing app that only looks in /home/user/pictures.
This system just doesnt work? Users should not need to enter the save directory every time they open an app.
With the current system, static filesystem permissions will always be needed, and that is fine, the integration of those should just be improved.
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