Ubuntu
gnome-desktop package

gnome-version.xml

Asked by Chris McIntosh

Why is a competitive gnome-version.xml file included in this package? The package, gnome-desktop3, also contains a gnome-version.xml file. This creates confusion as to which gnome-version.xml file should be the authoritative file...

In other words, while developing a utility, I want to know the version of gnome in use on the machine which is running my utility. Should my utility report to the user the gnome version from gnome-version.xml in /usr/share/gnome-about/ or from the file with the same name from /usr/share/gnome/?

Is gnome-desktop supposed to be replaced by gnome-desktop3? On my machine they co-exist... and report contradictory gnome versions...

Just wondering...

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Jacobsallan
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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#1

My precise install has both too, The version of gnome-session should give the version of Gnome you have

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marcus aurelius (adbiz) said : 		#2

your message sounded rather authoritative to be "Just wondering".
anyhoo, you have to remember that 12.04 is still ALPHA release, so nothing is perfect yet.

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Chris McIntosh (gnu-know-who) said : 		#3

Oops, sorry for not specifying... but I am running 11.10 (Oneiric). Certainly, I would not expect ALPHA releases to be consistent. Authoritative? I wouldn't expect so. Knowledgeable, perhaps. I spent a considerable amount of time trying to answer the question of why sysinfo and gnome-system-monitor contradicted each other in their report of "Gnome version."

Originally, my utility was encouraging the user to get the version from sysinfo... until we kept talking oranges and pineapples over the phone... they were reporting 2.32.1 and I was instructing them on things which they could not see... when, after much time (as I have said), we realized that they were running 3.2.1.

Going forward, it seems to me that one of the two gnome-version.xml files should have a "confidence factor" over the other. But which?

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Best Jacobsallan (jacobsallan) said : 		#4

Oneiric is based on Gnome 3, so pay attention to the /usr/share/gnome-version.xml file.

The 2.32.1 in gnome-about/gnome-version.xml is the version number of the Gnome about box. Type gnome-about to see what the gnome about box is about.

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Chris McIntosh (gnu-know-who) said : 		#5

Thanks Jacobsallan, that solved my question.