Standard System Directories¶
xdg-user-dirs¶
xdg-user-dirs is a tool to help manage “well known” user directories like the desktop folder and the music folder. It also handles localization (i.e. translation) of the filenames.
You should first determine if the file in question is:
A configuration file - $XDG_CONFIG_HOME:$XDG_CONFIG_DIRS
A data file - $XDG_DATA_HOME:$XDG_DATA_DIRS
A non-essential (cache) file - $XDG_CACHE_HOME
It is recommended that your application put its files in a subdirectory of the above directories. Usually, something like:
$XDG_DATA_DIRS/<application>/filename
$XDG_DATA_DIRS/<vendor>/<application>/filename
When loading, you first try to load the file from the user-specific directories ($XDG_*_HOME) and, if failed, from system directories ($XDG_*_DIRS). When saving, save to user-specific directories only (since the user probably won’t have write access to system directories).
$XDG_DATA_HOME: user-specific data files.
default: $HOME/.local/share
xenial: None
bionic: None
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME: user-specific configuration files.
default: $HOME/.config
xenial: None
bionic: None
$XDG_DATA_DIRS: precedence-ordered set of system data directories.
default: /usr/local/share/:
/usr/share/
xenial: /usr/share//usr/share/xsessions/plasma:
/usr/local/share:
/usr/share:
/var/lib/snapd/desktop
bionic: /usr/share//usr/share/xsessions/plasma:
/usr/local/share:
/usr/share:
/var/lib/snapd/desktop
$XDG_CONFIG_DIRS: precedence-ordered set of system configuration directories.
default: /etc/xdg
xenial: /etc/xdg/xdg-/usr/share/xsessions/plasma:
/etc/xdg:
/usr/share/kubuntu-default-settings/kf5-settings
bionic: /etc/xdg/xdg-/usr/share/xsessions/plasma:
/etc/xdg:
/usr/share/kubuntu-default-settings/kf5-settings
$XDG_CACHE_HOME: user-specific non-essential data files.
default: $HOME/.cache
xenial: None
bionic: None
Any files in here can be wiped out (eg not backed up) and should have no impact on the
application other than regenerating the cache files (eg re-download)