Support for Drupal 7 is ending on 5 January 2025—it’s time to migrate to Drupal 10! Learn about the many benefits of Drupal 10 and find migration tools in our resource center.I recently had some trouble with an update which came about because the upgraded modules had been unpacked into /modules instead of /sites/all/modules
Paths should be intuitive, and while it's usual to have information in the README that is unexpected, it should not contain information that is contrary to expectations. A user looking at "modules" may expect that it is the place to unpack contributed modules. This violates the principle of least astonishment.
Since this is reserved for core matter, and it appears that Drupal in fact ignores any contributed modules placed in /modules, I suggest that a more suitable name for this is /core.
Comments
Comment #1
Damien Tournoud CreditAttribution: Damien Tournoud commentedThis is a feature request, and those go to the current development version.
Comment #2
chriscf CreditAttribution: chriscf commentedI'm changing this back to a bug, because "not violating users' expectations" is not really a feature. The resolution is probably something as simple as "svn move modules core".
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Since writing the above, I see that the repository is actually CVS rather than Subversion. A "mv modules core" somewhere after the checkout in a packaging script should do the trick.
Comment #3
Cybergarou CreditAttribution: Cybergarou commentedViolating users' expectations is not a bug since there is nothing wrong with the code or functioning of Drupal. It is a hassle to some people new to installing modules in Drupal, and changing the directory name would thus be considered a usability feature.
/core isn't really appropriate since core consists of more than just that folder. Moving modules into a directory called core would do nothing to remove the confusion of those who currently think this is the correct place for contributed modules.
If an appropriate directory name is devised, the confusion would shift from new installers to new developers. That can be considered preferable since someone who is going to start development on Drupal components is more likely to read and grasp all of the related documentation.
Also, remember that there is code referencing the modules folder. Making this change isn't as trivial as you would first think. You would have to convince someone that it is worth their time. Namely that dealing with people who don't pay full attention to the documentation is more of a hassle than changing the code.
Comment #4
chriscf CreditAttribution: chriscf commented"Moving modules into a directory called core would do nothing to remove the confusion of those who currently think this is the correct place for contributed modules."
I wasn't aware that there were unknowing users out there who would think that "core" is the right place to put things referred to on d.o as "modules". I only suggest "core", because the current description is that it is for "core modules".
and violating expectations is a bug. This is not the same thing as being simply unexpected.
Comment #5
wretched sinner - saved by grace CreditAttribution: wretched sinner - saved by grace commentedI think this is a feature request, rather than a bug. Having said that, I think that work would be better spent on #22336: Move all core Drupal files under a /core folder to improve usability and upgrades which removes more confusion and de-clutters the root of the folder also.