[mythtv] Why are themes downloaded to /etc/mythtv?

[Michael T. Dean]

On 12/10/2011 09:49 PM, Raymond Wagner wrote:
> After a bit of a discussion with Mike Dean in IRC, we've decided that
> the real problem is that MythTV should not be storing configuration data
> and cache data in the same location.  To that end, we've come up with a
> potential solution
>
> 1. Get rid of mysql.txt.  This one has been a long time coming ever
> since config.xml showed up with the UPnP server and detection.  This
> means some of the options mysql.txt used to offer will need to be
> migrated to config.xml, and a chunk of the database selection code will
> need to be rewritten.
>
> 2. Move the name and location of config.xml to disconnect it from the
> cache directory.  Use something like mythtv.xml or mythtv-config.xml.
> Have a default location of $HOME/.mythtv.xml, with a fall through to
> SYSCONFDIR/mythtv.xml, where SYSCONFDIR is compiled in statically with
> the standard --sysconfdir flag.  Make the default to that /etc/mythtv/.
> Make this selection very well spelled out in the logs with the default
> logging parameters.
>
> 3. Keep the rest of the data in its current location of $HOME/.mythtv,
> with an optional override of $MYTHCACHEDIR (as opposed to the old
> $MYTHCONFDIR).  This still contains all the theme and download cache,
> and other temporary files, but since it is divested of configuration
> data, it should be less of an issue for packagers and users to put
> wherever they want and still continue to follow their distro's
> convention.  If packagers want this data shared between multiple users,
> set $MYTHCACHEDIR to its location, and make sure all users are group
> owners with group write permissions.  This could be performed by a
> wrapper script (like Mythbuntu), or by putting the definition into the
> system profile.
>
> Note that MythTV is capable of calling external applications and
> utilities that may well want to store their own data in $HOME.  Running
> any MythTV application with an altered or non-existent home folder
> should be considered very dangerous, and not done.  This does mean I'll
> have to alter the Gentoo ebuilds to comply with this.

Actually, I'd prefer not even having a MYTHCACHEDIR.

Firefox doesn't let me specify a different location for ~/.mozilla.  Nor 
does xine allow changing ~/.xine, nor MPlayer its ~/.mplayer, nor DBus 
~/.dbus, ...

If it's just cache data (once we allow putting the config file 
elsewhere), I really don't see a good reason to move the cache.

Mike