Firefox pdf plugin not remembering download directory and moving files from /run/user/XXX deletes them without a trace

[Josef Wolf]

On Wed, Nov 08, 2023 at 02:18:26PM -0600, Keith wrote:
> On 11/8/23 11:54 AM, Josef Wolf wrote:
> > On Wed, Nov 08, 2023 at 02:01:08PM +0100, Oliver Grawert wrote:
> > > hi,
> > > Am Mittwoch, dem 08.11.2023 um 13:07 +0100 schrieb Josef Wolf:
> > > > When a pdf file is previewed in foirefox, the pdf previewer offers a
> > > > button to
> > > > save the file. In older installs (e.g. ubuntu-18.04, maybe prior to
> > > > snap?) the
> > > > dialog activated by this button remembered the directory that was
> > > > selscted in
> > > > previos invocations. It even remembered the directory dependant on
> > > > the site
> > > > the file was downloaded from.
> > > > 
> > > > In ubuntu-22.04, this dialog always resets to something like
> > > > /run/user/1000/XXXX/YYYY, so one has always to manually navigate to
> > > > the last
> > > > download directory that was used last time.
> > > > 
> > > > Even worse: when I noticed this fact, I ran:
> > > > 
> > > >    $ cd /some/dir/very/deep/into/the/file/hierarchy
> > > >    $ find /run/user/1000 -name '*.pdf' -print0 | xargs -0 mv -t .
> > > > 
> > > > to move those files to the directory they belong.
> > > > 
> > > uh, rather do not do that since the files in /run are just mirroring
> > > the file names ...
> > > 
> > > snaps (including firefox) use flatpaks xdg-desktop-portals to store
> > > files if you do not use the snap home interface ... there is some
> > > documentation at:
> > > 
> > > https://snapcraft.io/docs/xdg-desktop-portals#heading--portal-vs-home
> > > 
> > > and here s the upstream doc:
> > > 
> > > https://flatpak.github.io/xdg-desktop-portal/
> > 
> > Uh!
> > 
> > Then, this "feature" should be disbaled/vanished completely, alltogether!
> > 
> > Such insane behaviour shoud net be enabled by default at all!
> > 
> > Myself was with linux/ubuntu for decades now. Never seen such insanity! Looks
> > like I should look out for some snap-free alternative...
> > 
> > 
> 
> I use the Firefox snap with 22.04.3, and I don't see the behavior you're
> experiencing. On my system, Firefox works for me just as the way you
> described how the earlier non-snap versions worked for you.

You use "standard" folders like ~/Documents ~/.Pictures and so on?

Strange enough, this behavior does no appear with those standard
directories. It only happens when saving to a location outside the home
directory.


-- 
Josef Wolf
jw at raven.inka.de