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Re: LYNX-DEV 2-7 can't follow absolute path to bookmark file


From: Foteos Macrides
Subject: Re: LYNX-DEV 2-7 can't follow absolute path to bookmark file
Date: Fri, 14 Feb 1997 11:00:11 -0500 (EST)

Will Mengarini <address@hidden> wrote:
>Under Lynx 2-6, my bookmark file was specified on the options menu as
>"/u/s/seldon/bookmarks.htm".  When I tried to access it with 2-7, I was
>told no file existed, & I needed to add a bookmark with "a".  The file
>did exist in the specified location, & 2-6 was still able to access it
>fine.  This happened with multiple bookmarks either disabled or enabled.
>
>The clue came only when I enabled multiple bookmarks & tried
>to access the definition for the default bookmark file;
>Lynx flashed a note that I should use a file in my
>home directory.  Well, /u/s/seldon *is* my home directory,
>but removing that dirname allowed the file to be found.
>
>I'm not sure what's happening here.  Perhaps it was intentional that
>2-7 no longer allow absolute paths to bookmark files even though 2-6
>did, possibly for some security reason.

        Yes, it was a gaping security hole for sites which can't
allow abritrary file://localhost/path URLs, but do want to offer
the convenience of bookmarking.  Bookmark files ultimately resolve
to file://localhost/path URLs.


>                                         If so, there will be a lot
>of help requests of the form "Lynx 2-7 can't find my bookmark file",
>possibly misleading less-tenacious users to falsely conclude that
the upgrade doesn't work.  It's plausible many users have absolute
>paths, since I can recall why I did: it was necessary before SAVE_SPACE
>was implemented in lynx.cfg, when I used to get my downloads into a
>separate directory by running Lynx from a shell script that would
>cd to that directory before starting Lynx.  So the bookmark file
>was no longer in the current directory, & needed an absolute path.
>I didn't think of twiddling the options menu after SAVE_SPACE was
>defined & this kluge was no longer necessary; in particular, sometimes
>I execute Lynx from subdirectories of $HOME, & I always want it to
>reference the $HOME bookmark file, not a new one for each directory.
>
>If absolute paths are now disallowed, what do relative paths mean?
>Are they always relative to $HOME?  Will users be able to guess this
>when Lynx tells them their bookmark files are empty, even though
>they look at the option menu & see a correct path to a file they
>know is a valid nonempty bookmark file?  Remember I only got a
>clue when I tried messing with multi-bookmarks.  While they were
>disabled (the default), all Lynx told me was, in effect, that the
>file named in the options menu didn't exist, even though it did.

        Both the self documentation in lynx.cfg, and the online 'h'elp,
state that bookmark file paths are resolved relative to the home directory.
They also state that if the files are in a subdirectory off home, the
path should begin with "./".  The code for accepting paths also corrects
entries to the desired format if what was entered can be inferred as
in or under home, so the user sees how the path should be structured.
There's really only so much that can be done, before simply expecting
the clueless to actually do some reading and clear thinking themselves.

                                Fote

=========================================================================
 Foteos Macrides            Worcester Foundation for Biomedical Research
 address@hidden         222 Maple Avenue, Shrewsbury, MA 01545
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