tdelibs/kdecore/README.user_profiles

Users can be associated with Profile(s)
=======================================

A user can be associated with one or more profiles. A profile indicates a 
configuration set that applies to a group of users. Each profile has a name
to identify it. If a user is associated with more than one profile then the
order of the two profiles is important. Settings associated with one profile
could override the settings in the other profile, depending on the order.


Mapping profiles to users
=========================

A mapping file determines which profile(s) should be used for which user.
The mapping file can be configured in /etc/kderc in the [Directories] group:

	[Directories]
	userProfileMapFile=/etc/kde-user-profile

Profiles can be mapped to individual users based on username, or profiles can
be mapped to groups of users based on the UNIX group(s) the users are part of.
(See man 1 groups)


Mapping profiles to individual users
====================================

The mapping file can contain a [Users] section for mapping profiles to
an individual user. The [Users] section contains the user's account name
followed by one or more profiles as follow:

	[Users]
	bastian=developer
	adrians=developer,packager

The above example assigns to user "bastian" the profile "developer". To user
"adrians" it assigns the two profiles "developer" and "packager". The order
in which the profiles are listed makes a difference, settings in earlier
profiles overrule settings in profiles that are listed after it. In the above
case of user "adrians", wherever the "developer" and "packager" profiles contain
conflicting settings, the settings of the "developer" profile will take precedent.

If a user has an entry under the [Users] section, this entry will determine all
profiles that are applicable to the user. The user will not be assigned any
additional profiles based on the groups the user is part of.

Mapping profiles to user groups
===============================

If a user has no entry under the [Users] section in the mapping file, the profiles
that are applicable to the user will be based on the UNIX group(s) the user is
part of.

The groups and the order in which the groups are considered is determined by
the following entry in the [General] section of the mapping file:

	[General]
	groups=pkgs,devel

Each of these groups should have an entry under the [Groups] section that defines
which profile(s) belongs to that group. This looks as follows:

	[Groups]
	pkgs=packager
	devel=developer
	bofh=admin,packager,developer

For each group that a user is part of, the corresponding profile(s) are used. The
order in which the groups are listed in the "groups" entry, determines the resulting
order of all the applicable profiles. If multiple profiles are applicable to a
particular user and a profile contains settings that conflict with settings in
another profile then the settings in the earlier listed profile take precedent.

So if, based on the example above, a user is part of the "pkgs" group then the
"packager" profile will be used for that user. If the user is part of the "devel"
group then the "developer" profile will be used. Users that are part of the "bofh"
group will use the "admin", "packager" as well as the "developer" profile. In case
of conflict, settings in the "admin" profile will take precedent over settings
in the "packager" or "developer" profiles.

If the user is part of both the "pkgs" and "devel" groups, then both the "packager"
and "developer" profiles will be used. In case of conflicting settings between the
two profiles, the "packager" profile will take precedent because the "pkgs" group
associated with the profile was listed before the "devel" group.

The "groups" command can be used to see to which groups a user belongs:

	> groups coolo
        coolo : users uucp dialout audio video cdrecording devel

Note that in general only a few groups will have profiles associated with them.
In the example above only the "devel" group has a profile associated with it,
the other groups do not and will be ignored.

If there is no profile defined for any of the groups that the user is in, the
user will be assigned the "default" profile.


The Profile determines the directory prefixes
=============================================

The global KDE configuration file (e.g. kdeglobals or /etc/kderc) can
contain config-groups that are associated with a certain user profile. 
Such a config-group is treated similar as the [Directories] config-group.

The name of a such config-group is [Directories-<ProfileName>]


Integration with KIOSK Admin Tool
=================================

The KIOSK Admin Tool uses /etc/kderc as source for all its profile
information. For this it uses the following keys in the
[Directories-<ProfileName>] config-group:

	# Short text describing this profile
	ProfileDescription=

	# Files will be installed with the uid of this user
	ProfileInstallUser=

The KIOSK Admin Tool uses the first directory from the prefixes= entry
as default installation directory for this profile.


Default setting as example
==========================

The following snipped could be added to /etc/kderc to define a "default" profile:

	[Directories-default]
	ProfileDescription=Default profile
	ProfileDescription[de]=Defaultprofiel
	ProfileInstallUser=root
	prefixes=/var/run/kde-profile/default