Review request: JDK-6519127 Vista: user.home property not set correctly

[Alexey Utkin]

On 18.01.2013 19:41, Alan Bateman wrote:
> On 18/01/2013 15:30, Alexey Utkin wrote:
>> Hi Everyone,
>> Please review the fix.
>>
>> Bug description:
>>     https://jbs.oracle.com/bugs/browse/JDK-6519127
>>
>> Here is the suggested fix:
>> http://cr.openjdk.java.net/~uta/openjdk-webrevs/JDK-6519127/webrev.02/
> Sean Chou also sent a proposed for this one a few months ago. Clearly 
> we need to update this code but there is a concern that changing it 
> will break somebody (as there has often been ambiguity as to where the 
> user's home directory is). Can you summarize the difference in the 
> approach and also explain what the potential compatibility 
> issues/differences are?
>
> -Alan
The main difference is that after the fix Java becomes the program that 
could be certified by MS as Vista comparable.
Java would support the dynamic user profiles  and follow the changes in 
Windows OS policy  (profiles migration).
Java would able to support long home directories (Windows API migrates 
from limited-length paths, that were the FAT FS limitation,  to 
unlimited-length paths).
The only compatibility issues could happen on the systems that uses 
Registry-based redirection by the way that was reserved for Java 
property define switch -Duser.home=XXXX.

I would like repeat it again: after the fix Java becomes Vista 
comparable program, that catch up changes from Windows OS management tools.
For the special cases we have compatibility solution: Java define for 
"user.home" property.

 From MS point of view the User's home directory could not be used 
directly for data storage. The specialized [Document], [Downloand], and 
etc. sub-folders need to be used.
Often configs are stored in [.XXXX] sub-folders. That does not make MS 
happy, but that is common practice for cross-platform tools. On that 
field Java plays together with  SSH, cygwin,
Firefox, Netbeans and all other well-known products. The behavior could 
not be easily change (MS would happy to move configs into 
[AppData\Local] sub-folder, but it is not a Java problem).

Regards,
-uta