Bug#794433: xdg-user-dirs: program acts without the user’s approval

[Thomas Grüttmüller]

Package: xdg-user-dirs
Severity: important

Dear Maintainer,

1. The program creates folders in the user’s home directory

* without identifying itself to the user,
* without informing the user about the action, and
* without a chance for the user to opt out.

2. The program also repurposes existing folders in the user’s home directory

* by listing them under “~/.config/user-dirs.dirs” for use by other
programs,
* without informing the user about the step and the intended future use,
* and again without a chance to opt out.

3. In my case, I did not choose to install the “xdg-user-dirs” package. I
don’t know how it got on my computer. None of the rdepends apply, and even if
it was a dependency remnant, it should have long been autoremoved. Maybe the
package was slipped in during the Jessie upgrade.


Solution (to 1 and 2):

Before taking any action, the program should pop up a dialog to

* identify to the user,
* inform the user about the planned changes, and
* give the user a chance to opt out.

* *** Especially, there should be no repurposing of existing folders without
the users consent!!! ***

Regards,
  Thomas



-- System Information:
Debian Release: 8.0
  APT prefers stable-updates
  APT policy: (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'stable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386

Kernel: Linux 3.16.0-4-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=de_DE.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=de_DE.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)