Option to disable embedding path in SVG attributes

[John Croisant]

Currently, Inkscape will embed directory paths into the SVG file. For example, when saving a file, Inkscape sets the "sodipodi:docbase" attribute to the full directory path where the file was saved. Likewise, when using "Export Bitmap", Inkscape sets the "inkscape:export-filename" attribute to the full path to the file where it was exported.

While this behavior is often convenient, I would like a way to disable it sometimes, for privacy/security reasons. For example, if I want to offer an SVG file to download from my web site, the whole world would be able to learn 1) what my unix user name is, and 2) somewhat of how I arrange my directories. This is also a problem when emailing or committing a SVG file to a version control repository.

Even if you remove these attributes from the SVG file manually, they will be recreated the next time you save the file / export a bitmap. That means you have to remember to remove them manually every time you want to distribute a new version, which is inconvenient and increases the likelihood that a mistake will be made.

My proposed solution to this would be to have a per-document boolean attribute to control whether these paths are saved in the document or not. Also, for convenience, have a global preference to choose the default (save / don't save), which would be inherited at the time new documents are created.

[ScislaC (scislac)]

I'm also a fan of this idea. And for precisely the same reason... distribution and privacy/security.

[sas (sas-sas)]

This bug should probably be considered a duplicate of bug 168958, although that bug report doesn't suggest a per-document setting.

Note that sodipodi:docbase is already gone in Inkscape 0.46, although it's still preserved if an old file is edited.

See also bug 170966, which proposes getting rid of inkscape:export-filename entirely, by storing the information in preferences.xml instead.