[fpc-pascal] GetTempFileName in Linux

[Michael Van Canneyt]

On Thu, 7 Oct 2010, Sven Barth wrote:

> Am 07.10.2010 14:21, schrieb Michael Van Canneyt:
>> 
>> 
>> On Thu, 7 Oct 2010, Sven Barth wrote:
>> 
>>> Am 07.10.2010 13:43, schrieb Michael Van Canneyt:
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> On Thu, 7 Oct 2010, Sven Barth wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>>> So: Norms ? Thank you, but I'll pass on that and implement what I
>>>>>> perceive as
>>>>>> simple and correct :-)
>>>>> 
>>>>> If the applications would keep their read only files in 'c:\program
>>>>> files' and write only into those directories that they should (e.g.
>>>>> user's appdata and global appdata (although this one should not be
>>>>> used for sharing writable files...)) we wouldn't have all these
>>>>> problems (virtual file store, UAC, etc.).
>>>> 
>>>> Some applications must write in the application directory.
>>>> 
>>>> Our apps do automatic updates at least once a month. The updates cannot
>>>> be postponed. I don't see how this can be achieved without writing in
>>>> the
>>>> application directory.
>>> 
>>> As "updating applications" is an administrative task it should only be
>>> done by those users that are allowed to do that.
>> 
>> Yes, but if the administrator must update 20 PCs manually every 2 weeks,
>> he quickly complains that he has better things to do, so it must be done
>> when the 'ordinary' user uses the application.
>
> But this is one of the tasks that a administrator should do. He should check 
> that "his" computers are in good and up to date condition (that most admins 
> think a bit different about this is another story...)

Well, in schools the administrator is a teacher (usually maths or so) who
gets the additional job of managing the schools' IT structure. And all our
clients are schools.

>> I'm not making this up, it's just real life.
>
> That's the problem :(
>
>> 
>> I am aware of the theory and the good practices, but in a commercial
>> environment, different rules enter the game. I just haven't found a
>> satisfying solution yet :-)
>
> Perhaps the correct solution would be to create a user group that's named 
> e.g. "Michael's software users" and this group is granted write permission to 
> your software's main directory. Now every user who uses your software is 
> added to the group and voila! (that would even work on *nix systems)

Since that are usually all users of the PC, this amounts to giving all users
write permission to the app directory, which is what the admins do now :-)

Anyway, just to say that 'norms' are nice, but practice is another story.

I'll see about a more 'safe' gettempfilename() which is what the discussion
was all about in the first place.

Michael.