Linux/Unix users: Where should savefiles be stored?

[takkaria]

Where should savefiles be stored? Are they better kept in lib/save/ (or wherever your distro puts them), or in your home directory in ~/.angband/, along with your pref files, screendumps, and the like?

(Since we have a poll function here, I might as well use it. )

[Nick]

Where should savefiles be stored? Are they better kept in lib/save/ (or wherever your distro puts them), or in your home directory in ~/.angband/, along with your pref files, screendumps, and the like?

(Since we have a poll function here, I might as well use it. )

Can you have more than two choices in a poll? I wanted the Don't Care option

[pav]

I believe they should be in /var/games on multiuser install, in ~/.angband otherwise. The lib/ should be installed read-only.

[takkaria]

Can you have more than two choices in a poll? I wanted the Don't Care option

I thought that just after I'd created it, but I couldn't see any way to edit it afterward.

[pav]

I can edit it

[takkaria]

I believe they should be in /var/games on multiuser install, in ~/.angband otherwise. The lib/ should be installed read-only.

Is that just tradition speaking, or do you make use of the multiuser aspect?

[pav]

If people want to install Angband from their distro's package system, it got to be proper multiuser install.

The preference of /var over making /usr/share/angband subdir writable is an aspect of my traditionalist worldview as a FreeBSD user.

Personally, I do play all my bands from a ~/bin install...

[petebull]

I chose home directory because that's what is always in my backups on upgrades or reinstallations.

I'd consider /var/games/ as reasonable second option.

[Bandobras]

When I was a student, friendly research-teaching assistants installed Angband on their faculty Linux machine. I've become addicted to Angband by playing it through telnet from lab text terminals. From time to time assistant's character's ghost would kill me in town (V was nasty at that time), which was both scary and dignifying.

I think, for variants with ghosts, /var/games is a must. For variants with score (all?) it is nice, too. Not many admins install Angband by default and not many can be compelled, but then, not so many people play Angband, anyway...

[Nolendil]

As I have several versions of Angband installed (mostly one only used for the borg, one with the current version I play and some older versions scattered around), I'd prefer to keep them in lib/save/ so that I know which save goes with which version.
None of these versions is installed system wide (I share the computer with my parents and none of them play Angband, shame on them ).

Anyway, I usually prefer to have all files related to an app in the same directory so that you just have to delete the directory to uninstall everything, or copy the whole directory to move the app to another computer.
But it might be just me.

If you plan to put the files in the home directory, note that, on Mac OS X, the standard place for user save files (and some other stuff) is "~/Library/Application Support/<app_name>/", not "~/.<app_name>".
By the way, the Mac version of Angband 3.0.6 (and probably some previous ones, I don't know when the change occurred) already stores bone, data, character dumps, saves and scores in the home directory but under "~/Library/Preferences/Angband/" which doesn't perfectly fit with Mac OS X standards.
Some Mac applications (especially ports from other Unix platforms) store their prefs and saves in "~/.<appname>" but it's a pain as it means you have to check several places to remove prefs and save files when you remove an app. Moreover, it means you have to use the terminal to get access to the files (as far as I know, it's not possible to show hidden files with Mac OS X GUI) which is less user-friendly.
So you might consider making a special case for the Mac version but I can live with whatever you choose.

[TJA]

Its personal data and, on a Unix/Linux system, belongs to a personal directory - that is somewhere in $HOME
This is true without any arguments against it - the rest of server OS installation may by far not under control of the user(s) and may be overwritten, newly installed or upgraded without notice!
Only in your $HOME you have control over your files and can be sure they will exist!

Other ideas about this do not originate from a Unix/Linux system with potentially many users and even many administrator but from the PC-view of things: "This is my computer" ... wrong in Unix/Linux. At least as the default for a game&#180;s configuration!

IMHO, of course

[Magnate]

Its personal data and, on a Unix/Linux system, belongs to a personal directory - that is somewhere in $HOME
This is true without any arguments against it - the rest of server OS installation may by far not under control of the user(s) and may be overwritten, newly installed or upgraded without notice!
Only in your $HOME you have control over your files and can be sure they will exist!

I agree. All your saves, dumps and pref files belong in ~/.angband/Variantname/ - I can't for the life of me see why people would want their save files under /usr or /var ...

As a second choice I would go for /usr/local/games/Variantname/lib/save/

CC

[Fuma]

Other ideas about this do not originate from a Unix/Linux system with potentially many users and even many administrator but from the PC-view of things: "This is my computer" ... wrong in Unix/Linux. At least as the default for a game´s configuration!

You're missing the whole point. Angband was supposed to be installed by the *system admin* on the linux box, so that everyone could play and compete with each other. Thus having access to your save file enables you to cheat.
Of course this is a really far-fetched example, as roguelikes aren't a very popular game and most people playing them aren't going to cheat, but the possibility exists.

We should separate "installing the game for yourself" and "installing the game for everyone".
Nonetheless, as long as there is a simple way to manually change the savefiles location, it's not a big problem.

[TJA]

Its not the job of anybody to control such "cheating", esp. not of the administrator of a box.

[takkaria]

Its not the job of anybody to control such "cheating", esp. not of the administrator of a box.

It is if the scorefile is shared by all users.