Linux packaging system and file hierarchy

[Simon McVittie]

On Wed, 12 Nov 2008 at 18:51:23 -0500, Randy Kramer wrote:
>    * user's "real" data (that is files containing things like user's 
> documents, photos, music, ..., but not things like user defined or 
> selected icons, backgrounds, ...)--$XDG_DATA_HOME and $XDG_DATA_DIRS

That's not the intended purpose of XDG_DATA_HOME - if it was, then the
default value wouldn't be hidden!

As far as I can tell, the intention is that anything the user saves
explicitly (file manager, Save As, ...), or should normally be able to
access through a file manager, goes in a non-hidden directory
of the user's choice, either one of those configured by xdg-user-dirs
<http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/xdg-user-dirs> or something
else chosen by the user.

>    * I think a fourth hierarchy is required for stuff that is not "real" 
> user data--e.g., if for some reason an application has personalized 
> icons, background images, or something similar, they do not go in 
> $XDG_DATA_HOME but instead here

As I understand it, this is XDG_DATA_HOME (and for reading, XDG_DATA_DIRS).

    Simon