volatile config data and XDG Base Directory spec

[François Revol]

On 14/08/2013 17:28, David Faure wrote:
> On Tuesday 13 August 2013 14:05:08 Jerome Leclanche wrote:
>> On Tue, Aug 13, 2013 at 9:11 AM, Thomas Koch <thomas at koch.ro> wrote:
>>> On Tuesday, December 04, 2012 04:35:12 PM Thomas Koch wrote:
>>>> Some applications store "volatile" config data or "convenience data"
>>>
>>> like:
>>>> - last window position

In Haiku at least, this is the kind of thing that is stored as an xattr
on the relevant file/folder instead usually...
Of course, Linux still hasn't come to a point where xattr is considered
mandatory, shame on you :p

>>>> - recently opened file
>>>> - last time application was run
>>>> - ... you name it
>>>>
>>>> Most annoyingly these applications create config files on first run even if
>>>> I won't ever run those apps again! So my home folder accumulates many
>>>> worthless config files.
>>>>
>>>> There are many examples of this in the .kde folder.
>>>>
>>>> I don't like to really call this data "configuration". It's not
>>>> intentionally set by the user. It has lot less value than "real hand
>>>> crafted configuration" (think .vimrc, .emacs, .zsh, .gnupg/gpg.conf,
>>>> .ssh/config).
> 
> That stuff isn't in XDG config anyway, so the argument doesn't really hold :-)
> But yeah there's other stuff in there which is real config
> (e.g. LDAP server for kaddressbook).

I'd say it's rather session-specific indeed.

François.