X-KDE-Protocols=...,smb,...

[Stephan Bergmann]

On 09/25/2014 02:32 PM, Stephan Bergmann wrote:
[...]
> In light of this, is it helpful that we unconditionally claim smb
> support in those X-KDE-Protocols lines?

On IRC, together with Björn and Rene, we came to the conclusion that it 
is probably better to remove smb from those X-KDE-Protocols lines, see 
<http://cgit.freedesktop.org/libreoffice/core/commit/?id=f9f9aa9873c5851da86d33ca75e937ac022206a3> 
"Remove smb from X-KDE-Protocols lines."

As a data point, I had recently tried to make 
X-KDE-Protocols=...,smb,... actually work on Fedora, 
<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1054952> "libre-office 
4.1.4.2 won't open files on SMB shares; build 4.1.4.2-2.fc20" (by adding 
the necessary gvfs-smb package dependencies at the Fedora LO PRM level), 
but that was not received too well:

For one, the mix of KDE and GIO involved means that when you have an smb 
share mounted in KDE's Dolphin and request Dolphin to open a document in 
LO, LO will again ask you for the smb share's credentials (cf. 
<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1054952#c26>).  (Unlike in 
the case where LO doesn't claim smb in the X-KDE_Protocols lines, in 
which case Dolphin downloads the document to /var/tmp first and hands 
that filepath to LO, see below).

For another, the new dependency of LO packages on the gvfs-smb package 
drags in quite a lot of further packages (cf. 
<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1147649> "New dependencies 
in libreoffice").

<https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=67527> "FILEOPEN: LO can't 
open files over SMB from KDE because of missing dependencies - wants to 
repair! [summary in comment 59]" is a bug with a very long history, but 
which by now probably boils down to "the missing deps for KDE" 
(<https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=67527#c68>),  As that 
last remaining part of that bug is covered now by 
<http://cgit.freedesktop.org/libreoffice/core/commit/?id=f9f9aa9873c5851da86d33ca75e937ac022206a3>, 
I'll finally mark that bug as fixed.

Unfortunately, the fact that Dolphin will communicate documents on smb 
shares with LO via /var/tmp proxy files again now (see above), will 
re-open <https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=39591> 
"KDE-Integration, can not save to remote fs supported by kio" again---if 
you modify such a document in LO, Dolphin will ask you whether it shall 
upload it again only after you close LO (cf. 
<https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=39591#c6>).

Ultimately, the best approach (if technically possible) would probably 
be to have some KDE-specific backend in LO for smb (etc.) URLs, similar 
to the --enable-gio resp. --enable-gnome-vfs GNOME-specific backends, so 
that LO could receive smb URLs from Dolphin but would not need to rely 
on GNOME-related functionality to access them, cf. 
<https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=70712> "KDE: Support of 
opening and saving to a remote fs via KIO."

Stephan