Bug 289255

Version:           1.0 (using KDE 4.7.3) 
OS:                Linux

In the Mageia Forums, it came to attention that path selection appears different when upgrading from Mandriva 2010.2 (using KDE 4.3) to Mageia 1 (using KDE 4.6.5). I just checked with Mageia 2 Alpha1 (using KDE 4.7.3) and see this still exists.

Problem:
When you open an application, such as Kwrite, Okular, Ksnapshot, Gwenview, if your designated path is a symlink to another location, instead of following the symlink as defined, we begin with the absolute translated real path. In prior versions of KDE (4.3) you would normally follow the symlink path, but now with KDE 4.6.5,4.7.3 we are given the real path.
You can follow the discussion details here: https://forums.mageia.org/en/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1578
title "make application go to the symlink"

Wishlist Question:
Would it be possible to add a feature into kcmshell4 desktopath to allow users to follow the relative or the absolute path. It is understood some people come from a Windows background and may prefer or be used to an absolute path, while users more accustomed to a unix/linux/bsd background are more used to a symlink followed path. Having this option available would allow users to choose there preferred option choice if the described path happens to be a symlink to another location.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1) In case you cannot replicate this under a simpler setup, then it is probably best to begin with 2 different partition compiled with different file formatting, for example "/home/user" is located in "/dev/sda1" and formatted as "reiserFS", partition "/dev/sda5" is "/" (not important, but let's say ext4), and another partition "/dev/sda6" is formatted as xfs and holds "/mnt/temp".

2) In /mnt/temp, now create another directory, temp2, and give it read/write permissions so that user can write in it... chmod 777 /mnt/temp/temp2

3) In user's home directory, create a symlink.
cd ~
ln -s /mnt/temp/temp2 /home/user/xyz

4) Start KDE's System settings and go to Account Details, and convert the existing paths to use the symlink instead. Examples:
Document Paths: /home/user/xyz/
Pictures Paths: /home/user/xyz/
Apply the fix, do not move documents to new location.

5) Run a program. Okular. Select File->Open
expected path is /home/user/xyz but the given path shows /mnt/temp/temp2

6) Try a few other programs, Ksnapshot, Kwrite ...

Actual Results:  
Open or Save file default location points to the resolved path of /mnt/temp/temp2

Expected Results:  
Was hoping to see the symlink path since the path written in desktopath was /home/user/xyz.

There are some KDE bugs and wishes (around KDE 4.3) where this began gradually changing from the stated method to the resolved method.
http://forum.kde.org/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=84150
http://forum.kde.org/brainstorm.php#idea84173_page1
and eventually by version KDE 4.7.3 (approaching 4.8) we begin to see a fair bit of the resulting changes.
http://trueg.wordpress.com/2011/12/07/symbolic-links-in-nepomuk-a-solution/

As mentioned up above... this came about as something of interest in https://forums.mageia.org/en/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1578

this problem could be worked-around by providing a different path, like /home/user but maybe it is worth adding an option or selection toggle for these exceptions when users use a symlink as their chosen path.