Home directories.

[oliver]

Thomas Leonard wrote:

>On Mon, Oct 25, 2004 at 05:54:14PM +0200, oliver wrote:
>  
>
>>Browsing through XFce's changesets I noticed they decided to use .config
>>for user based config files. They got that idea from the xdg.
>>
>>I was browsing through the mailling list archive and never saw any
>>mention nor discussion that lead to this descision. Now I do strongly
>>agree with such dir. However I would recommend changing it now, before
>>it's widespread.
>>Agreed .config for such file is a good and sensible name. However I
>>belive it would be better to go with the default linux naming scheme and
>>thus go for .etc instead. All of linux's config files etc are in the,
>>/etc.
>>    
>>
>
>Config files that follow the basedir spec don't go directly in /etc (which
>is mainly for system configuration), but in /etc/xdg. So, it would be
>~/.xdg. However, that's a really bad name for users even if it was only
>used for freedesktop.org specs.
>
>  
>
Why is it a really bad name? Anyhow, I'd then recommend ~/.etc/xdg/ or
~/.etc/xdg-config/
Or split xdg entirely from the .etc proposal, as I intended. I guess my
proposal should be rephrazed into:
Move .config into .etc/config and do with it as you previously planned.

>Like XFCE, ROX is beginning to store configuration here too
>(using, eg, ~/.config/rox.sourceforge.net/... to avoid conflicts).
>
>  
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where they should then use ~/.etc/config/rox.sourceforget.net/... for
instance.
I then wonder why split the xdg from the rest. Might be handy, yes, but
really required? Keep all config etc. together in a nice 'controllable' dir.
I for one don't see why one would have <configdir>Xconfigfiles/xapp and
<configdir>Otherconfigfiles/consoleapp
I don't feel it's needed to split X from the rest. But that's just me.
Confince me :)

>>Thus not only config files could be in .etc, but themes for
>>instance or backgrounds (thinking at .enlightenment/themes
>>.enlightenment/backgrounds or gtk's .theme dir)
>>    
>>
>
>But I probably don't want themes in my configuration directory (at least,
>I don't regard a theme I downloaded as a configuration setting, only my
>choice to use it). Themes are already covered by $XDG_DATA_DIRS (which is
>for read-only shared third-party data).
>  
>
which is why it's .etc and not .config. if you want to split themes and
config in your application, or extend the spec, sure why not. but keep
in in .etc to keep all those 'I don't care about these files' out of the
homedir.
So I'd then go with .etc/gtk_themes .etc/wallpapers (or backgrounds)
.etc/icons .etc/config

I also feel the desire to get a .usr .share but that might be overkill?
then again 2 or 3 dot dirs are less annoying then 23423423 files and dirs.
The sharing of _personal_ data could still happen, like I just mentioned
with .etc/icons and .etc/wallpapers.

All the .etc stuff however is for personal use. Per user basis! from
what I understand the $XDG_DATA_DIRS is 'global' data that's installed
on a local machine to be used by everyone.
I see it more for example as, I have a nfs share with my homedir on it.
I have a theme installed for me. I don't understand where to put files
and such. I don't have permission to install my themes over several
machines of course. Having the theme in .etc/enlightenment/themes (where
it automatically installed) I don't have to worry about 'weird' and
'unkown' files in my homedir. I have my theme everywhere available.

So if we would categorize or order further, sure, plenty of ways inside
the .etc dir, or maybe even use somethingelse with .etc and .share maybe
in it. there's plenty of possibilies.