Deleting domain Alias - says it is going to delete its home directoy

[shoulders]

SYSTEM INFORMATION
OS type and version	Ubuntu Linux 22.04.5
Usermin version	2.102
Virtualmin version	7.20.2 Pro
Theme version	21.20.7
Apache version	2.4.52
Package updates	8 package updates are available

The issue

An domain alias should not have a home directory

solution

can you amend the notifications or tell me I am wrong? 😄

[iliajie]

Hello,

That’s odd! How does this alias domain look like in navigation menu dropdown?

[shoulders]

This is using my main admin login

The one that start with hg. The primary is .co.uk and the aliase are .uk and .com

also

This account is from a cpanel import if it makes any dofference

[jcameron]

That message isn't really wrong - alias domains do still have their own home directory.

[shoulders]

alias domains do still have their own home directory.

They should not have one from an end- users point of view.

Is this a hidden folder used as a work around? Maybe the message on-screen needs changing as from what I read, it is going to delete my files.

does there even need to be a message saying it is going to delete the home folder if there are no user files or settings?

i.e. this home folder does not contain any userfiles and is just a requirement to allow aliases to work????

Clarification is definitely needed on this one.

thanks

[iliajie]

alias domains do still have their own home directory.

They should not have one from an end- users point of view.

@shoulders This only applies to aliases with their own email.

@jcameron In that case, we should show “Home directory” on the “Virtual Server Summary” page, but currently, we didn't. I have fixed that on the associated commit. Now I’m also wondering if we should allow editing alias home directory using the similar change here, as well:

https://github.com/virtualmin/virtualmin-gpl/blob/master/edit_domain.cgi#L90-L94

[jcameron]

It's almost always empty, so there's usually nothing to delete to be honest. I suppose we could hide this message for alias domains to avoid scaring users :-)

[shoulders]

Just incase this was not fixed, when you delete the alias you get the following, including deleting home page

Deleting mail aliases ..
.. done

Removing from target virtual website ..
.. done

Deleting home directory ..
.. done

Deleting server details for tonkatoys.uk ..
.. done

Updating Webmin user ..
.. done

Re-loading Webmin ..
.. done

Re-starting Usermin ..
.. done

Restarting mail server ..
.. done

Applying webserver configuration ..
.. done

[iliajie]

It's almost always empty, so there's usually nothing to delete to be honest. I suppose we could hide this message for alias domains to avoid scaring users :-)

I don’t think this is the right approach! If the directory exists, we have to tell user about!?

[iliajie]

Deleting home directory .. .. done

This is expected since the home directory exists. I already explained earlier that aliases with their own user have a home directory, and everything related to that had been already working correctly. I believe this patch should be reverted rather than continuing down the wrong path...

[jcameron]

Yeah I think it's fine to keep that message

[shoulders]

Consider the delete message

Home directory - the home directory for this virtual server, containing all website and otherwise, will be deleted.

From the Docs

https://www.virtualmin.com/docs/getting-started/understanding-virtual-server-and-account-types/#understanding-virtual-server-aliases An alias allows a domain to act exactly like another, sharing the same website and email addresses. This is useful for having multiple domains like example.com and example.net display the same website content.

• The official docs even say they share the same website content and then in the delete message it clearly says it is going to delete all website content.
• As an end-user an alias does not have a home directory because it uses the website content of the parent

my thoughts

• Amend the message to actually match the docs and what people expect or
• remove the message

[iliajie]

• Amend the message to actually match the docs and what people expect

Agreed! Fixed here https://github.com/virtualmin/virtualmin-gpl/commit/5bbe26034cda38a5ecd982ebb6bf0c8e47b6b56c.

Thanks for bringing this up!

[shoulders]

Much better message for alias. Less frightening and more consistent.

[iliajie]

Much better message for alias. Less frightening and more consistent.

Thanks for pointing this out in the first place!