<html style="direction: ltr;">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<style type="text/css">body p { margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0pt; } </style>
</head>
<body bidimailui-charset-is-forced="true" style="direction: ltr;"
text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<p>For as long as I remember we have kept a collection of geospatial
data in /usr/local/share/data with a read-only symlink in 'user's
home directory. This was intended to allow classroom
installations, where some data could be available to all students,
while preventing anyone from changing those files.</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>This arrangement has caused some issues with (at least) two
applications: GRASS
(<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://trac.osgeo.org/osgeolive/ticket/2085">https://trac.osgeo.org/osgeolive/ticket/2085</a>), and OTB
(<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://trac.osgeo.org/osgeolive/ticket/2176">https://trac.osgeo.org/osgeolive/ticket/2176</a>). To address these
issues, some "unnatural" chmod commands were introduced into the
install scripts, or cryptic explanations were added to the
Quickstarts. Maybe it's time that we re-examine the necessity of
this read-only data store. It would be more transparent to have a
"normal" setup with the data placed directory under 'user's home,
and avoid these work-arounds. Furthermore, I would assume that
anyone with the know-how to prepare a classroom setup could also
build her own data directory with any permissions she requires.<br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>In order to weigh the importance of the read-only data directory,
I suggest to field some questions to all OSGeo Live users:</p>
<p>"Have you done a classroom installation of OSGeo Live?"</p>
<p>"If yes, how important was the read-only data directory
'/usr/local/share/data' ?"</p>
<p>"Have you encountered problems with the read-only symlink called
'data' in 'user's home directory?"</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>Based on responses, we can then make a more informed decision
whether to leave /usr/local/share/data as is, or initiate a
change.</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>Best regards,</p>
<p>Micha</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Micha Silver
Ben Gurion Univ.
Sde Boker, Remote Sensing Lab
cell: +972-523-665918</pre>
</body>
</html>