SNAP_REAL_HOME causes problem

[Soumyadeep Ghosh]

If a snap has `$SNAP_REAL_HOME` set in `$HOME` variable, when the snap is opened, it changes the permission of empty folders, making them unusable. More about this is discussed in the snapcraft forum.
https://forum.snapcraft.io/t/snap-real-home-is-kinda-buggy/
A further investigation is requested by the snapd team. Thank you.

Soumyadeep Ghosh(সৌম্যদীপ ঘোষ)

[Sergio Cazzolato (sergio-j-cazzolato)]

Hi, could you please add more context about why you need to set the HOME env var as SNAP_REAL_HOME?
Which is the use case?
thanks

[Soumyadeep Ghosh (soumyadghosh)]

There are two use cases for this:

1. There are still a lot of apps, that doesn't use portals. When these apps open file chooser, it takes to the $SNAP_USER_COMMON, when a user clicks `home`, I don't think this is a very pleasant experience for a user.

2. There is a project that I'm snapping, it saves the current configuration of the desktop. It uses the $HOME to find out and copy the config files, themes, icons etc and again saves it. For that it need the $HOME to point out to the real home.

This is the project https://github.com/vikdevelop/SaveDesktop

[Sergio Cazzolato (sergio-j-cazzolato)]

It was answered by kenvandine in the forum topic. Please let me know if that answer works for you.

[Soumyadeep Ghosh (soumyadghosh)]

No, I saying the same that I said there..

> The current code is small, so, as per I have checked, this app directly calls python subprocess to save files in ~/ or copy from those config files.
> https://github.com/vikdevelop/SaveDesktop/blob/main/src/main_window.py#L501
> Also, there are calls by it done to the {path.home}/ I need the call done to home itself, not to something assigned as home. The script fixes the assign, and the app follows it and searches for config files under SNAP_USER_DATA

https://forum.snapcraft.io/t/snap-real-home-is-kinda-buggy/34463/15