Re: xdg-user-dirs – purpose?

[Thomas U. Grüttmüller]

On 09.11.2017 16:43, Simon McVittie wrote:
>>             PUBLICSHARE
>>
>> This looks interesting. Has it ever been implemented? It reminds me of the
>> public_html folder found in older distributions.
>
> Yes, GNOME can export it via WebDAV (the Sharing panel in the System
> Settings, which controls gnome-user-share). I think it was also
> available read-only via Bluetooth in the past, although I can't find
> an option for that now.

Interesting.


>>             DOCUMENTS
>>
>> The purpose is not obvious. Gimp uses it as a default to save pictures; Anki
>> uses it to store its configuration files…
>
> It's the equivalent of Windows' "My Documents" folder, used as a
> default/suggested location for files saved by the user in content-creation
> applications ("office" apps, and more specialized editors like GIMP or
> Inkscape). From what you've said here, I think GIMP is using it correctly,
> and Anki is not - configuration files are usually implicitly created
> by using or reconfiguring an application rather than being explicitly
> saved by the user, so they should go in the XDG_CONFIG_HOME defined by
> the XDG basedir spec (which by default is hidden, so the user doesn't
> normally see files in their file browser that they didn't choose to
> create).

What is the difference between DOCUMENTS and $HOME?

Greetings
Thomas