The reason I like it is it provides directories to
use across platforms (edit: Not sure about Windows), relative to the user. Since the
applications download a file (UNIHAN database [1]) to bootstrap,
we want to store it in the user's files, not the systems.
The other thing I do that's helpful is using sqlite (which is
often built with Python).
This combination gives a database, and a place to store
configuration, downloaded/built files, in an organized
way across systems.
The nice things XDG "standardizes" which I'm using:
$XDG_DATA_HOME defines the base directory relative to which user specific data files should be stored. If $XDG_DATA_HOME is either not set or empty, a default equal to $HOME/.local/share should be used.
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME defines the base directory relative to which user specific configuration files should be stored. If $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is either not set or empty, a default equal to $HOME/.config should be used.
$XDG_CACHE_HOME defines the base directory relative to which user specific non-essential data files should be stored. If $XDG_CACHE_HOME is either not set or empty, a default equal to $HOME/.cache should be used.
Why the implementation is helpful:
It defines a common directory for cache/data/config files, with applications inside them, e.g. ~/.config/i3, ~/.config/tmuxp, rather than adding more stuff to ~/.i3, ~/.tmuxp. When standards aren't being followed, programs end up storing their configurations / data / etc all over.
Another thing is it defines directories relative to the user themselves and for the system files. Dotfiles may imply configuration / artifacts in the users home directory, it doesn't have. The thing I like is I can check for configuration in user files (for instance ~/.gtk-3.0/), then fall back on checking the system files (/etc/gtk-3.0).
The benefit of user files is they're writable out of the box, so if there's going to be any file generated that the user needs to keep (like an unzipped version of UNIHAN) that can be cached so they don't have to download it again.
".local": It's in my home directory, but local to it, and not somewhere else? This doesn't make a lot of sense, but er, Okay.
"shared": For Christ's sake, what is this? It's in my home, and local within it, but also shared? With whom? How? Why? I give up.
Why would anyone want to do this? What concrete benefit does this path give us? What specific thing does it let you do that ~/.myprogram doesn't? The article is bad, and the XDG standard is bad. The traditional approach is fine.
Some things XDG is trying to do that's not readily apparent:
~/.local:
It's intended to be /usr/local in the user's home directory. There's a bit of a backstory here though: Linux distros don't follow `/usr/local` as well as BSD's, not much may be there.
~/.local/share:
Same idea, for /usr/local/share. But on many linux distros, this is `/usr/share`. XDG is trying to do is mirror the system directories in the user's filespace.
Let's assume there's going to be a lot of applications: they won't agree on where cache, config, and data storage is kept at within ~/.myprogram. With XDG, if someone wants to clean out all their cache files? rm -rf ~/.cache.
The other thing is: Typically the user won't be looking at ~/.local/share/myprogram - it's for data the application itself is going to use. It doesn't really count against it. What I think we will be looking at though: configuration files. That's where I think XDG is kind of original - but it's really close to what /etc is.
As for ~/.myprogram: I'd be okay with that, if it were purely configuration. But XDG serves the article writer's purpose fine: Keeping $HOME clean. I kind of think splitting between ~/.config, ~/.local/share, and ~/.cache ends up feeling more consistent with how linux/bsd organizes files.
The reason I like it is it provides directories to use across platforms (edit: Not sure about Windows), relative to the user. Since the applications download a file (UNIHAN database [1]) to bootstrap, we want to store it in the user's files, not the systems. The other thing I do that's helpful is using sqlite (which is often built with Python).
This combination gives a database, and a place to store configuration, downloaded/built files, in an organized way across systems.
The nice things XDG "standardizes" which I'm using:
$XDG_DATA_HOME defines the base directory relative to which user specific data files should be stored. If $XDG_DATA_HOME is either not set or empty, a default equal to $HOME/.local/share should be used.
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME defines the base directory relative to which user specific configuration files should be stored. If $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is either not set or empty, a default equal to $HOME/.config should be used.
$XDG_CACHE_HOME defines the base directory relative to which user specific non-essential data files should be stored. If $XDG_CACHE_HOME is either not set or empty, a default equal to $HOME/.cache should be used.
Why the implementation is helpful:
It defines a common directory for cache/data/config files, with applications inside them, e.g. ~/.config/i3, ~/.config/tmuxp, rather than adding more stuff to ~/.i3, ~/.tmuxp. When standards aren't being followed, programs end up storing their configurations / data / etc all over.
Another thing is it defines directories relative to the user themselves and for the system files. Dotfiles may imply configuration / artifacts in the users home directory, it doesn't have. The thing I like is I can check for configuration in user files (for instance ~/.gtk-3.0/), then fall back on checking the system files (/etc/gtk-3.0).
The benefit of user files is they're writable out of the box, so if there's going to be any file generated that the user needs to keep (like an unzipped version of UNIHAN) that can be cached so they don't have to download it again.
(XDG Link: https://specifications.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/basedir-...)
[1] https://www.unicode.org/reports/tr38/