linuxPIPEpower

Once again I try to get a handle of my various dotfiles and configs. This time I take another stab at gnu stow as it is often recommended. I do not understand it.

Here's how I understand it: I'm supposed to manually move all my files into a new directory where the original are. So for ~ I make like this:

~
  - dotfiles
      - bash
         dot-bashrc
         dot-bash_profile
      - xdg
            - dot-config
                user-dirs.dirs
      - tealdeer
            - dot-config
                - tealdeer
                       config.toml

then cd ~/dotfiles && stow --dotfiles .

Then (if I very carefully created each directory tree) it will symlink those files back to where they came from like this:

~
  .bashrc
  .bash_profile
   - .config
        user-dirs.dirs
      - tealdeer
          config.toml

I don't really understand what this application is doing because setting up the dotfiles directory is a lot more work than making symlinks afterwards. Every instructions tells me to make up this directory structure by hand but that seems to tedious with so many configs; isn't there some kind of automation to it?

Once the symlinks are created then what?

• Tutorials don't really mention it but the actual manual gives me the impression this is a packager manager in some way and that's confusing. Lots of stuff about compiling

• I see about how to combine it with git. Tried git-oriented dotfile systems before and they just aren't practical for me. And again I don't see what stow contributing; git would be doing all the work there.

• Is there anything here about sharing configs between non-identical devices? Not everything can be copy/pasted exactly. Are you supposed to be making git branches or something?

The manual is not gentle enough to learn from scratch. OTOH there are very very short tutorials which offer little information.

I feel that I'm really missing the magic that's obvious to everyone else.

Some packages install in under a minute, while alternatives which seem functionally similar, take hours.

Sometimes there are several available options to fit a use case and I would like to use it now. Is it possible to anticipate which one will likely be the fastest to get rolling?

Generally I like to install via yay.

Searching around here is what I learned. Agree?:

• AUR will be slower
• Certain categories of package, like web browser, are inherently slow
• Selecting -bin will be faster if available

Is there some way to guess beyond that? Certain programing languages take longer than others? Is it in relationship to existing packages on the system? Other characteristic? Some kind of dry-run feature to estimate?

Obviously I don't have the fastest computer. I have added MAKEFLAGS="-j4" to /etc/makepkg.conf so at least all 4 cores can get used.

Once I realize a package is going to take ages to get ready, is it possible to safely intervene to stop the process? I try to avoid it because in general I understand arch-based distros don't like "partial" installs. But is it safe to stop compiling? No changes have yet been made, right?

For a given device, sometimes one linux distro perfectly supports a hardware component. Then if I switch distros, the same component no longer functions at all, or is very buggy.

How do I find out what the difference is?

Does anyone else find javascript/electron-based code editors confusing? I can never understand the organization/hierarchies of menus, buttons, windows, tabs. All my time is spent hunting through the interface. My kingdom for a normal dialogue box!

I've tried and failed to use VSCodium on a bunch of occasions for this reason. And a couple other ones. It's like the UI got left in the InstaPot waaaay too long and now it's just a soggy stewy mess.

Today I finally thought I'd take the first step toward android development. Completing a very simple hello world tutorial is proving to be challenging just because the window I see doesn't precisely correspond to the screenshots. Trying to find the buttons/menus/tools is very slow as I am constantly getting lost. I only ever have this in applications with javascript-based UIs

Questions:

1. Am I the only one who faces this challenge?

2. Do I have to use Android Studio or it there some kind of native linux alternative?

edited to reflect correction that Android Studio is not electron

cross-posted from: https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/13814482

I just noticed that eza can now display total disk space used by directories!

I think this is pretty cool. I wanted it for a long time.

There are other ways to get the information of course. But having it integrated with all the other options for listing directories is fab. eza has features like --git-awareness, --tree display, clickable --hyperlink, filetype --icons and other display, permissions, dates, ownerships, and other stuff. being able to mash everything together in any arbitrary way which is useful is handy. And of course you can --sort=size

docs:

  --total-size               show the size of a directory as the size of all
                             files and directories inside (unix only)

It also (optionally) color codes the information. Values measures in kb, mb, and gb are clear. Here is a screenshot to show that:

eza --long -h --total-size --sort=oldest --no-permissions --no-user

Of course it take a little while to load large directories so you will not want to use by default.

Looks like it was first implemented Oct 2023 with some fixes since then. (Changelog). PR #533 - feat: added recursive directory parser with `--total-size` flag by Xemptuous

I just noticed that eza can now display total disk space used by directories!

I think this is pretty cool. I wanted it for a long time.

There are other ways to get the information of course. But having it integrated with all the other options for listing directories is fab. eza has features like --git-awareness, --tree display, clickable --hyperlink, filetype --icons and other display, permissions, dates, ownerships, and other stuff. being able to mash everything together in any arbitrary way which is useful is handy. And of course you can --sort=size

docs:

  --total-size               show the size of a directory as the size of all
                             files and directories inside (unix only)

It also (optionally) color codes the information. Values measures in kb, mb, and gb are clear. Here is a screenshot to show that:

eza --long -h --total-size --sort=oldest --no-permissions --no-user

Of course it take a little while to load large directories so you will not want to use by default.

Looks like it was first implemented Oct 2023 with some fixes since then. (Changelog). PR #533 - feat: added recursive directory parser with `--total-size` flag by Xemptuous

I have a multiple user linux system. Well actually a couple of them. They are running different distros which are arch-based, debian-based and fedora-based.

I want to globally use non-executable components not available via my system's package manager. Such as themes, icons, cursors, wallpapers and sounds.

Some of them are my own original work that I manage in git repos. Others are downloaded as packages/collections. If there is a git repo available I prefer to clone because it can theoretically be updated by pulling. And sometimes I make my own forks or branches of other people's work. So it's really a mix.

I want to keep these in a totally separate area where no package manager will go. So that it is portable and can be backed up / copied between systems without confusion. Which is why I don't want to use /usr/local.

I also want to be able to add/edit in this area without su to root. So that I can easily modify or add items which then can be accessed by all users. Also a reason to avoid /usr/local

I tried making a directory like /home/shared/themes then symlinking ~/.themes in different users to that. It sometimes worked OK but I ran into permissions issues. Git really didn't seem to like sharing repos between users. I can live with only using a single user to edit the repos but it didn't like having permissions recursively changed to even allow access.

Is there a way to tell linux to look in a custom location for these resources for every user on the system? I also still want it to look in the normal places so I can use the package managers when possible.

fonts - once solved

On one install, I found a way to add a system-wide custom font directory though I am not able to recall how that was done. I believe it had to do with xorg or x11 config files. I can't seem to find in my shell histories how it was done but I will look some more. I do recall the method was highly specific to fonts and didn't appear to be transferable to other resources.

I am forced to use some proprietary software at work. The software lets users export custom functionalities. You can then share these to other users. I have made some that are pretty simple, but greatly enhance the use of the application using its native tooling.

I'd like to share mine under some sort of open source licence rather than being ambiguous. Mostly to spread awareness of the concept of open source which is at approximately 0% right now.

What are the considerations here? Can I use the GPL or is it inherently out of compliance since you need a proprietary software to run it?

The employer doesn't claim any intellectual property rights over my work product. I'm not able to find anywhere that the proprietary vendor does either. But I haven't gone through everything with a fine tooth comb. What language would I be looking for?

Advice appreciated. Obviously it can only be general as many details are missing. I just don't understand the details of licences very well.

I've been using manjaro for a couple of years and I really like it. especially the wide variety of packages available. Recently been using yay to find/install.

I prefer to run FLOSS packages when they are available. But I do not find a convenient way to preferentially seek these out. Even to know what licenses apply without individually researching each specific package.

It does not seem to be possible to search, filter or sort based on license in the web interface for packagegs or AUR. I do not find anything about it in man pacman(8) or man yay(8).

The only way I have found to find license info from the terminal is using expac. You can use %L to display the license. I guess you could combine this in a search to filter, similar to some of the examples listed on pacman/Tips and tricks - ArchWiki. But I haven't quite got it to work.

This seems like something other people would want but I don't find any available solution for it. Am I missing something? Or is it something with the arch-based distros?

Anytime I search for an addon via the search box in settings > add-ons manager I get all these theme results. Here is a search for "syntax" (via the add-ons manager) I had to make it very zoomed-out to fit long page into screen cap:

I use themes personally to visually differentiate between profiles. And I have nothing against fun and frivolous user customizations. Am not hating on the concept.

I am curious about why they are so aggressively pushed so that they show up be default when trying to search for add ons you need to toggle off every time. Searching for an add-on to do something and searching for a theme that has some keyword included seem to me like totally different tasks and mixing them up is a strange choice.

Is this like a major things firefox thinks people like about it? Do people like it?

I am really struggling to replace facebook messenger / whatsapp for a few casual conversations. My friends and I are all wanting to move away. We are not heavy users of this but need it to work. I think the requirements are:

• floss client for android, linux, windows

• persistent history across devices

• reasonable security

• don't need to self host server

• can send a message to offline user, they get it when they come online

• not tied to or reliant on phone number / cell service

• ETA: end user documentation explaining how to set up and common troubleshooting

tried:

• matrix: the thing with having to keep track of room keys and stuff is too complicated. every time someone uses a new device it is a ton of issues and we could never quite get it ironed out

• signal: tied to phone number, no history across devices

• xmpp: similar to matrix the key situation is confusing, also no cross device history

• ETA: simpleX: a lot of people here are mentioning simpleX. It didn't come up in previous investigations so will give it a shot.

  • ETA 2: It doesn't seem to have persistent history across devices. Clarification?

I actually didn't think this would be such a problem but it is breaking us. we don't need a lot of sophisticated features like voice, video, moderation, 1000s of participants, spam protection etc that seem to be of concern to the projects. just simple text chat.