Bug 500460

Summary: At login, a .var folder is created in home directory even when Flatpak isn't installed
Product: [Plasma] plasma-browser-integration Reporter: remindful7560
Component: FirefoxAssignee: Kai Uwe Broulik <kde>
Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE    
Severity: normal    
Priority: NOR    
Version First Reported In: unspecified   
Target Milestone: ---   
Platform: Arch Linux   
OS: Linux   
Latest Commit: Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description remindful7560 2025-02-20 13:44:56 UTC
SUMMARY
At login, the ~/.var folder is populated with data for the Firefox Flatpak integration, and it creates the ~/.var folder even if Flatpak isn't installed.

This would be perfectly acceptable if it was somewhere more obscure, but creating a folder in my home directory for compatibility with software I don't use is very unfortunate. It being hidden doesn't improve the situation.

This is partially an upstream issue due to Flatpak's hardcoded use of the path, but support for changing it there is very low.

The behavior was introduced in this commit: https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-browser-integration/-/commit/ebf6606463d73e7dd0a658340b369ab495da9b4a

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Have plasma-browser-integration installed
2. Login

OBSERVED RESULT
A `.var` folder (along with contents) is present in home directory

EXPECTED RESULT
No folder generated unless Flatpak is installed (or at least, it would only populate the folder if it already existed)

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
(available in the Info Center app, or by running `kinfo` in a terminal window)
Operating System: Arch Linux 
KDE Plasma Version: 6.3.1
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.11.0
Qt Version: 6.8.2

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Comment 1 Antonio Rojas 2025-02-20 15:08:20 UTC

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 500154 ***