[Fontconfig] What to do with $HOME is unset

[Keith Packard]

On Mon, 2006-09-25 at 10:14 +0200, Frederic Crozat wrote:

> This "HOME not set" bug has been there for years and I'm still convinced
> we should try to minimize it by using getpwent when HOME is not set
> (since some people might want to override their HOME, even if I'm not
> sure it is a good idea).

I'm also unsure we should override what appears to be a common method
for avoiding issues with setuid programs; fontconfig itself explicitly
ignores $HOME when running setuid. Some idea as to the security
implications of writing (and reading) files from the getpwent value of
the home directory would be very useful to have. Who can we ask?

> I'll be happy to hack a patch for it (I did one a loong time ago) if it
> is going to be accepted for merge.

Let's figure out where we want to store files when $HOME isn't set,
either something in /tmp or finding the home directory from getpwent
both seem possible, I also see potential issues with both.

-- 
keith.packard at intel.com
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