Use of bin versus libexec

[Thiago Macieira]

On quinta-feira, 20 de setembro de 2012 12.46.47, Jonathan Marten wrote:
> There are a lot of executables in $KDEDIR/bin which are used for
> internal purposes within KDE and are not intended to be directly
> executed by the end user.  Having these in the user's $PATH is not
> necessary and has overheads for the shell (and for the user, when
> doing tab-completion of a command).

Hello Jonathan

During the 4.0 time, we did move several helper executables into libexec to 
free up bin. However, note that some executables remain in bin because they 
are often usable by users, including when we request help of them.

Of course, it's been 5 years and some executables must have crept back in.

The ones I didn't keep below mean I have no opinion on.

> akonadi_*
> akonadiserver

Most of those are never meant to be run directly, including akonadiserver. 
I've manually run some of the agents for debugging purpose, but those were 
isolated cases and required reading the source code anyway.

Akonadi is controlled by akonadictl. That's the one that should stay, plus 
akonadiconsole.

> kbuildsycoca4			<-- but useful for the user to run sometimes

Needs to stay.

> kcheckrunning
> kcminit
> kcminit_startup
> kcookiejar4
> kdeinit4_shutdown
> knotify4
> kwalletd
> kwrited
> sopranod
> strigidaemon

All of the above should be moved.

> kded4
> kdeinit4

Not sure. Those are sometimes useful.

In the particular case of kded4, if it's moved, it would be nice if 
kdeinit4_wrapper found it in libexec too. It's useful to restart it sometimes:
	kquitapp kded
	kdeinit4_wrapper kded4

> kdeinit4_wrapper
> kwrapper4

Need to stay.

> kmail-migrator
> kmailcvt

User facing tool, should maybe stay. One of them, anyway.

> ksmserver

Should move. No one ever runs this one manually, since it's the only process 
that you cannot restart in KDE without causing a logout.

> ksysguardd

Should move, provided ksysguard knows how to find it on remote hosts.

> nepomukindexer
> nepomukserver
> nepomukservicestub

Same as akonadi.

-- 
Thiago Macieira - thiago (AT) macieira.info - thiago (AT) kde.org
   Software Architect - Intel Open Source Technology Center
      PGP/GPG: 0x6EF45358; fingerprint:
      E067 918B B660 DBD1 105C  966C 33F5 F005 6EF4 5358
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