use symlink for Tor Browser User Profile Data Folder instead of Copying the Whole Tor Browser Folder

Qubes-Whonix
1

UPGs is a Debian (and maybe other Linux distributions) design which is inherited by and unmodified in Qubes Debian.

That clarifies the reason. Thanks.

Regarding copying /var/cache/tb-binary/* (283 MiB of data) to $HOME:

In App Qubes, yes.

This seems quite inefficient, as it means backup of programs (not user data) along with everything else in the AppVM + additional writes to SSDs.

How about something like this:

if [ ! -d "${HOME}/profile.default" ]; then
	mv /var/cache/tb-binary/.tb/tor-browser/Browser/TorBrowser/Data/Browser/profile.default "${HOME}"
fi

ln -sfT "${HOME}/profile.default" /var/cache/tb-binary/.tb/tor-browser/Browser/TorBrowser/Data/Browser/profile.default

mkdir "${HOME}/.tb"

sudo mount --bind /var/cache/tb-binary/.tb /home/user/.tb

# then start TB

In this way, only actual user data (the profile) will reside in the AppVM and TB will still run as if it is installed in “$HOME”.

What do you say?

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2

Not planned.

Due to technical complexities documented here…
Tor Browser Update: Technical Details

Therefore it would be unwise for a downstream Linux distribution such as Whonix to attempt to separate binaries and user data.

Whonix Tor Browser Differences quote (just now added):

Changes are kept minimal and for integration purposes only. This is a deliberate design decision.

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