The Ugly Duckling called $XDG_CONFIG_HOME
Let’s take a look into my home directory:
[stick@spectra 0 ~] ls -F Applications/ Documents/ google.txt reverse-ssh* Desktop/ Downloads/ public_html/ work/ [stick@spectra 0 ~] ls -AF .0verkill google.txt public_html/ .adobe/ .grails/ .pulse/ .android/ .gstreamer-0.10/ .pulse-cookie Applications/ .gtk-bookmarks .pyhistory .AtomicWorm/ .gtkrc-2.0-kde4 .qt/ .bash_history .gvfs/ .rawstudio/ .bashrc .hplip/ .recently-used .bouml .htoprc .recently-used.xbel .boumlrc .hugin .repoconfig/ .bzr.log .icedteaplugin/ reverse-ssh* .cache/ .inkscape/ .rnd .cddb/ .inputrc .rpmpatch_macros .cedega/ .IntelliJIdea80/ .rpmpatch_rpmrc .civclientrc .IntelliJIdea8x/ .scummvmrc .civserver_history .irssi/ .signature-gk2 .config/ .java/ .signature-gmail .crack-attack/ .JxBrowser/ .signature-suse .cxgames/ .kde/ .skel/ .darkplaces/ .kde4/ .Skype/ .dbus/ .kderc .smc/ .designer/ .kinorc .springrc Desktop/ .ktorrent.lock .sqlite_history .directory .lbrc.conf .ssh/ .dmrc .lesshst .strigi/ Documents/ .links/ .subversion/ Downloads/ .liquidwarrc .teeworlds/ .dvdcss/ .local/ .thumbnails/ .eclipse/ .loki/ .thunderbird/ .emacs .macromedia/ .ufrawrc .esd_auth .mc/ .ultramixer/ .fbhighlevelshistory .mcop/ .vendetta/ .fbhighscores .miro/ .viminfo .fblevels/ .mixxxbpmscheme.xml .vimrc .fbrc .mixxx.cfg .VirtualBox/ .fontconfig/ .mixxxmacros/ .vlc/ .fonts/ .MixxxMIDIBindings.xml .vnc/ .fonts.conf .mixxxtrack.xml .w3m/ .gajim/ .mozilla/ .Wammu .gconf/ .mplayer/ .wapi/ .gconfd/ .mysql_history .windows-label .gegl-0.0/ .mysticmine .wine/ .gem/ .netxrc .winetrickscache/ .gimp-2.6/ .nexuiz/ work/ .gitconfig .ooo3/ .Xauthority .gnome/ .opera/ .xim.template .gnome2/ .osc_cookiejar .xine/ .gnome2_private/ .oscrc .xsession-errors .gnupg/ .profile .y2usersettings .google/ .psi/ .googleearth/ .psql_history
Out of 148 entries in my $HOME, there are only 12 of them I really want to see! How much nicer would it be, if it looked like this:
[stick@spectra 0 ~] ls -AF
Applications/ Documents/ public_html/ .signature-gmail
.config/ Downloads/ reverse-ssh* .signature-suse
Desktop/ google.txt .signature-gk2 work/
This is very simple to achieve, if only applications followed the XDG Base Directory Specification. Unfortunately, lots of them don’t. When you start using the following piece of code in your new awesome applications:
config = getenv("XDG_CONFIG_HOME")
if (!config) config = getenv("HOME") + "/.config"
config = config + "/my_awesome_app"
instead of the old-school one:
config = getenv("HOME") + "/.my_awesome_app"
users will gain two great advantages with nearly no extra effort:
- trying application without overwriting the existing configuration
XDG_CONFIG_HOME=/tmp/ my_awesome_app - maintaining multiple configurations of the same application
XDG_CONFIG_HOME=~/.config/awesome3 my_awesome_app
So, please, don’t ignore the ugly duckling called $XDG_CONFIG_HOME, I’m sure it will mature into a beautiful swan. :)