dbus de-prioritizes XDG_DATA_HOME -- can't customize user session

[danmb]

Binary package hint: dbus

I tried to over-ride /usr/share/dbus-1/services/org.gnome.ScreenSaver.service by creating a ~/.local/share/dbus-1/services/org.gnome.ScreenSaver.service file (because gnome-screensaver runs even when xscreensaver is active). This file gets ignored. If I put the file in /usr/local/share/..., it overrides the default as expected.

The XDG Base Directory Specification clearly states in

http://standards.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/basedir-spec-latest.html

"The base directory defined by $XDG_DATA_HOME is considered more important than any of the base directories defined by $XDG_DATA_DIRS. The base directory defined by $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is considered more important than any of the base directories defined by $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS."

Yet the relevant source code in dbus looks like (dbus/dbus-sysdeps-unix.c):

  if (!_dbus_string_append (&servicedir_path, DBUS_DATADIR":"))
        goto oom;
/* ... */
      if (!_dbus_string_append (&servicedir_path, xdg_data_home))
        goto oom;

i.e. XDG_DATA_HOME is used AFTER XDG_DATA_DIRS

This is a very serious issue that prevents the user from overriding misguided system-wide configuration.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: dbus 1.2.16-2ubuntu4.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-11.154-rt
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-11-rt i686
Architecture: i386
Date: Mon Feb 28 12:23:48 2011
InstallationMedia: Xubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" - Release i386 (20100429)
ProcEnviron:
 LC_COLLATE=C
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: dbus

[danmb (danmbox)]

The bug obviously affects Maverick and Natty as well. It has been fixed in GIT and will be in 1.4.8:

https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=35569

I hope this fix will be backported to 1.4.6 (on freedesktop.org and/or here), because it would be quite annoying to have to deal with buggy Ubuntus for years to come now.

[danmb (danmbox)]

I wonder why this bug is marked as Fix Released? Upstream has indeed fixed the problem, but on a different branch (dbus 1.4.8). Ubuntu has 1.4.6 and AFAICT the fix hasn't been backported.

[Anders Kaseorg (andersk)]

Dan, if you look at the top of this bug page, you’ll see that two different statuses are listed. One is “Fix Released” for the upstream bug, and the other is “New” for the Ubuntu bug. Don’t worry, the bug is still open.

[danmb (danmbox)]

Thanks, I missed the second status line.

[Anders Kaseorg (andersk)]

dbus 1.4.8-3ubuntu1 is in oneiric now with this fix.

[danmb (danmbox)]

... which is only a dream at this point :)

I guess I should request a backport to my installed version?

[Román (faneca)]

Are there any possibilities to backport the fix to the LTS distribution (Lucid Lynx)?