[pulseaudio-discuss] [PATCH] Don't let user-set PULSE_RUNTIME_PATH values affect behaviour

[Tanu Kaskinen]

On Sat, 2014-10-04 at 11:13 -0600, Glenn Golden wrote:
> David Henningsson <david.henningsson at canonical.com> [2014-10-02 11:29:50 +0200]:
> > 
> > 
> > On 2014-10-02 11:17, Tanu Kaskinen wrote:
> > >On Mon, 2014-09-29 at 13:50 +0200, David Henningsson wrote:
> > >>
> > >>On 2014-09-28 11:23, Tanu Kaskinen wrote:
> > >>>The logic for choosing the runtime directory is complicated enough
> > >>>also without adding PULSE_RUNTIME_PATH into the mix. XDG_RUNTIME_DIR
> > >>>is sufficient for users to control the runtime directory.
> > >>>PULSE_RUNTIME_PATH has not been documented, so this change doesn't
> > >>>constitute an interface break.
> > >>
> > >>A quick googling of PULSE_RUNTIME_PATH seems to indicate usage of this
> > >>environment variable in at least chromium and enlightenment, and also
> > >>recommended in several blog posts and mailing lists, including this one.
> > >>It is likely used in several home-made scripts.
> > >>
> > >>I'm hesitant to remove it for that reason.
> > >
> > >The argument that "if you use undocumented interfaces, you can only
> > >blame yourself if your script breaks" probably won't change your mind,
> > >so I guess we'll just have to make this a documented interface then.
> > 
> > Well, while not officially documented, we have still advocated the use of it
> > on this mailing list [1], which to some degree could be seen as the de-facto
> > documentation of PULSE_RUNTIME_PATH, given the lack of official
> > documentation saying otherwise.
> > 
> 
> 2c suggestion from the albatross-avoidance dept: How about adding it to the
> official doc, but as an explcitly deprecated feature (and with an explicit
> associated date/version beyond which it will not be supported)?  

I'd be ok with that. PulseAudio should then also print warnings when it
notices that PULSE_RUNTIME_PATH has been set. David, what do you think?
I volunteer to write the patch that prints those warnings.

-- 
Tanu