Sharing files via /tmp

[ogra]

@archer123

Libre Office cannot access the /tmp location where Firefox places the file. Is this problem going to be fixed?

the confined /tmp is a security feature and will not be “fixed” as such … but the work on integrating XDG desktop portals is ongoing, once this is fully implemented sharing files transparently (whithout saving the file to your homedir first (like you have to do today), where both snaps have access) will be possible.

Snapd support for xdg-desktop-portal

Also see bug report: https://bugs.launchpad.net/snappy/+bug/1680011 It has been suggested that it would be a good idea to support xdg portals as used by flatpak to facilitate host⇄confinement interaction for common use cases such as opening a URI or opening a file. The advantage is that the wheel doesn’t need to get reinvented for snapd as this use case and the way it should work can be exactly the same regardless of the actual distribution/confinement tech. Be it flatpak or snap or whatever. …

[archer123]

Thank you for your reply. I’m glad to hear that the functionality to open files directly from Firefox will be available, hopefully in the near future. It is this sort of behavior which puts off non-techies from using Ubuntu. Thanks again for your reply.

[mike.dld]

I understand the discussion here is now mainly about two programs running under the same user account trying to pass a temporary file from one to another. This could well be solved by the xdg-desktop-portal but what is the solution for programs that are in no way connected to desktop (and so don’t use D-Bus), run under different accounts (including one running inside the Snap confinement and another outside), and still want to exchange some data via /tmp (being the global and universally accessible location) like a lock file, or a UNIX domain socket, or whatever else?

[chipaca]

/tmp isn’t “the global and universally accessible location” any more

[timojyrinki]

Thanks for the discussion. My customer has just reported this problem after starting to use LibreOffice snap in daily work. I can probably devise a workaround based on this discussion for her.

[LubosD]

So where should users store temporary files they want to open in a Snap-based app from now on? I really don’t want to be oblidged to delete these files manually, so /tmp was the perfect location.

I would personally never think about using Snap, but I was forced to by Ubuntu

[santiagofn]

Any news on this subject? I’m using Ubuntu 20.04 and the option of opening a file (temporarily downloaded) from Firefox 80 directly in LibreOffice 7 (snap) is still not working.