There are source code distributions that put a dummy file in empty directories for this reason. On Tue, 15 Mar 2005 14:12:18 +0000, Gabor Hojtsy <gabor@hojtsy.hu> wrote:
By shipping an empty files/, we get:
a) go to admin pages. b) read permissions warning. curse. c) change permission
You can even skip that curse by pointing out in the install file that they need to change the permissions. This was my 3rd and smoothest drupal install yet, so it particularly annoyed me. ;p There should be no warnings like that out of the box.
I think the reason that they don't give a default files directory is perhaps safety... technically, the way it is now, you can put files wherever you want. It may not be desirable to have everyone put it in the same place. Even so, it seems to be required, so it should be in the install text. :)
The reason why there is no empty files dir IMHO is that some compression/decompression utils tend to remove empty folders on archive creation/extraction. So having an empty files folder given these tools will not help users, but would add a point to the confusion stream:
a) go to admin pages b) read warning. curse. c) find files folder in archive, wonder why it is not extracted d) create files/. e) refresh admin page. f) wtf, dude?! g) change permission
Goba