Firefox2 with redirect all Caches

[rickg]

Using SC 2.8.2 w/Tiger server and clients 10.4.8 or greater.
Redirecting the Caches folder worked fine last year w/FF1.5.x, but
this year w/FF2 we have problems at some sites getting FF to launch
unless we redirect just the FF cache. Info from a couple of SE's:

The reason we found for this is that when you redirect the entire
Caches folder using Server Cleanup, it puts an alias to /tmp/xxxx
(xxxx = WGM User's ID number). The problem with this behavior (and
why Firefox appears to not want to open) is that this folder doesn't
exist on a particular computer when a user logs in (When I manually
through Terminal create the folder in that location, it now works).
That led us to the question as to how Server Cleanup intends for that
folder to be created on a computer when a user logs in, in order to
allow the Alias it creates to point to a valid location.

Since we ran this with his latest rev of the program (2.8.2b), we were
wondering what his response would be (i.e. a problem on his end with
the program or a problem with something on the server or client end of
things).

We could always create a little script that runs at startup to create
a folder in that location with the user's WGM user id number as the
name of it, but we thought it would be wise to ask him (the creator of
the Server Cleanup program) first.

Thanks for your time and consideration.

[Mark Gabrenas]

On SOME systems, these User ID folders are created (for instance on
mine). I found out after adding the feature to SC that the folder is
not universally created. I have not yet found out why it exists for
some systems and not for others. Redirecting the entire Caches folder
to /tmp without the use of User ID folders (or something similar) can
cause some programs to crash or behave improperly, since the program
may be trying to write a file created by a previous user and not have
the permissions it is expecting. There is an option in SC's Server
Cleanup menu to create an installer package that will create a login
hook on machines it is installed on that will simply create the User
ID folder "Create Login Script Installer." This will make sure the
User ID folder exists at login.

Personally, the option to direct the entire Caches folder is there
because it was asked for so many times. I personally prefer to
redirect only the folders that I need to.

Hope this helps clear a few things up.

On another note, since I am already addressing the entire list, Server
Cleanup 3 is in production. Now is the time to ask for any requests
for features.

Mark Gabrenas
Apple Certified Systems Administrator
m.gab...@mac.com