volatile config data and XDG Base Directory spec

[Thomas Koch]

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
> - 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).
> 
> Do you have an idea for a name for such transient settings? Maybe "state"?
> 
> I'd really like to have an additional category besides CACHE, DATA, CONFIG
> for this kind of settings. Having config and state mixed is mostly
> annoying if
> 
> - one keeps config in a VCS (git),
> - an application isn't used anymore but the state data remains
> - configuration is somehow managed centrally and the application doesn't
> read configuration from /etc

We've had this discussion again at Debconf[1] and discovered that several 
people reported this issue on different channels. We agreed that it would make 
sense to add a third category STATE which goes into a place of its own.

We don't think that STATE is the same as CACHE. The "backup test" is not a 
good indicator. I could live with loosing the state data in an accident. But I 
keep my .cache folder in a tmpfs so that it does not persist across reboots. I 
would not like my STATE data to go away with every reboot. 

[1] http://debconf13.debconf.org/

Regards, Thomas Koch