[maemo-developers] Considering /opt and MyDocs in your packages

[From: Aniello Del Sorbo]

That's good news.

I suppose that for "/home/user/MyDocs is also available in certain
cases" you mean what you specifiy in more details later on the mail,
that is that the directory may not be available when the tablet is
connected via USB and the partition is made available to the PC/master
tablet (if USB2Go works)?

Aniello

2009/9/9 Quim Gil <quim.gil at nokia.com>:
> Hi Maemo developers,
>
> This is an important information specially for those handling large
> packages. You can find an online version updated at
> http://wiki.maemo.org/Documentation/Maemo_5_Developer_Guide/Packaging%2C_Deploying_and_Distributing/Installing_under_opt_and_MyDocs
> (or  http://tr.im/yeWM in short)
>
> The N900 has about 100MB of free space in the root file system
> partition. This is not very much and would fill up quite quickly when
> installing additional applications. As a workaround, the /opt directory
> has been linked to a different partition with more space (about 1 GB)
> and /home/user/MyDocs is also available in certain cases, with even more
> space (about 25 GB). Developers are encouraged to make good use of them,
> specially for applications requiring more than 500KB, including
> dependencies.
>
> /opt as a good alternative
>
> The /opt directory is on an ext3 partition that is permanently mounted.
> Users cannot mess with it by accident. Of course, not everything needs
> to be moved to /opt: configuration files are best left in /etc, for
> example, and there is no point in moving small files like the various
> *.desktop and *.service files.
>
> The maemo-optify tool helps developers to prepare Debian packages that
> use /opt. This tool moves selected files inside the package to locations
> under /opt, and will symbolically link from the original location to the
> new place of the file. An early version of the tool can be found at
> http://gitorious.org/maemo-af/maemo-optify - see the README file for
> details.
> [edit] Considering /home/user/MyDocs
>
> The /home/user/MyDocs directory is another candidate for large
> collections of data files included in applications such as game graphics
> or maps. Using /opt is mostly transparent to package maintainers and
> end-users, but /home/user/MyDocs needs more careful consideration.
>
> The /home/user/MyDocs partition uses VFAT as its filesystem (which has
> some limitations compared to ext3) and it is removable: it will be
> unmounted and exported over USB when the user plugs in the cable. Also,
> /home/user/MyDocs is visible in the File manager. This all means:
>
>    * You need to be aware that VFAT isn't really a POSIX filesystem.
> Things like symbolic links, permission bits, etc wont work as nicely as
> they do on a real POSIX filesystem.
>    * You should be prepared that your files aren't there at all while
> the partition is unmounted. You should also not prevent the partition
> from being unmounted because you keep some of the files open.
>    * User might see your files, could get confused and try to delete or
> rename them.
>
> In summary, you can't really put programs, libraries or theme graphics
> into /home/user/MyDocs. Instead, use /opt for these.
>
> --
> Quim Gil
> open source advocate
> Maemo Devices @ Nokia
> _______________________________________________
> maemo-developers mailing list
> maemo-developers at maemo.org
> https://lists.maemo.org/mailman/listinfo/maemo-developers
>



-- 

--
anidel
Sent from London, Eng, United Kingdom