Bug#920460: nautilus: org.freedesktop.FileManager1.service conflict

[Jason Crain]

On Fri, Jan 25, 2019 at 09:01:54PM +0100, Yves-Alexis Perez wrote:
> this is a “preemptive” bug about a future file conflict. Latest Thunar
> upstream version (1.8.3) gained support for the
> org.freedesktop.FileManager1 DBus name
> (https://bugzilla.xfce.org/show_bug.cgi?id=12414). 

Funny, org.freedesktop.FileManager1 was just mentioned earlier today on
GNOME's #gnome-hackers IRC channel.

My understanding of how this service name was originally used is that
the desktop environment automatically started its file manager when the
desktop session began, possibly so it could manage the desktop icons and
background, and the file manager registered the
org.freedesktop.FileManager1 name. Then, if any program sends a message
to FileManager1, they'll get the one started by the desktop environment.
But current GNOME doesn't start nautilus on session start, so if you
have multiple desktop environments installed and send a message to
FileManager1, D-Bus activation starts a file manager and it's
unpredictable which one it will run.

This issue was discussed a while ago in a Debian bug:
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=860796#56. smcv's
comment in that bug includes some suggestions. To fix the file conflict,
probably no file manager should install the
org.freedesktop.FileManager1.service file. To fix the service name
conflict, he mentions the posibility of modifying the service file
specification so that a service can declare that it implements the
org.freedesktop.FileManager1 service under a certain DE.

Alternatively, when a DE starts up, it could grab the FileManager1 name
so any requests will be forwarded to the correct file manager for that
desktop, instead of relying on D-Bus activation.