Proposal: Stateless configuration by extending XDG_CONFIG_DIRS

[Cosimo Cecchi]

Hi Ikey,

On Mon, Mar 14, 2016 at 6:32 AM, Ikey Doherty <michael.i.doherty at intel.com>
wrote:

> Therefore I propose that XDG_CONFIG_DIRS is extended to also support
> a new vendor location:
>
> /usr/share/xdg
>
> It is also proposed on the glib bug linked below that we could extend
> support for "/run/xdg" also for systemd-style runtime trees.
>
> Notably, this is within the $(datadir) and *not* $(sysconfdir).
> It should also have a lower priority than the existing $(sysconfdir)/xdg
> directory, which in all cases should be respected as a local system-wide
> *override* to the vendor directory.
>

I completely agree with the principle behind this proposal, and would love
to see a change along those lines.
On the other hand, I wonder whether adding /usr/share/xdg to
XDG_CONFIG_DIRS is really the correct thing to do; applications will need
to be changed to install their default configuration in the new directory,
and there are programs out there (e.g. systemd) that already implement /etc
overrides and /usr vendor defaults.

In other words, what does putting the new directory in XDG_CONFIG_DIRS give
us compared to changing affected applications?

Cheers,
Cosimo
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