[libdvdcss-devel] Please implement the XDG basedir spec

[Reimar Döffinger]

The proposed patch uses data, not cache, so I think this is besides the point, but anyway.
Skip it if you don't want to read rants...

On 27.08.2014, at 21:24, Rémi Denis-Courmont <remi at remlab.net> wrote:
> Le mercredi 27 août 2014, 11:17:05 Diego Elio Pettenò a écrit :
> 
>> If you're referring to ~/.dvdcss I think we discussed that before and the
>> problem was with considering it cache.
> 
> It *is* cached data. It is generated from the disc, and can *normally* be 
> fully regenerated. That is pretty much the definition of cache.

That is one commonly encountered property of a cache, that is can be re-filled.
And even that one is not properly satisfied here (your examples aren't quite the same, since there the authoritative source changed, and the cache is intentionally supposed to reflect that)
Other properties caches often have:
They can not contain all data (not true here, there probably would be no problem storing keys of all DVDs ever produced)
They are an exact or simplified copy of the base data (not even remotely true here)

> If someone wants to save their cache in their backup, or manually inserting 
> entries there, nobody prevents them from doing.

Not to mention simply considering the _purpose_ of having a separate cache directory: to allow people to make small, but still complete backups.
Putting the keys in the cache does not reduce the backup size in any relevant way, so I simply see no _advantage_ to considering it a cache.
Though I grant you that with libdvdcss the situation is not as inane as with libaacs, where you ate basically guaranteed to lose access to your BluRays if you don't backup your .cache and the only way to get it back is to buy a new (but not too new) drive or hope someone publishes a new host key...

Regards,
Reimar