Question regarding $XDG_DATA_DIRS

[Elsie Hupp]

There are some scenarios where using or not using the trailing slash does actually make a difference, perhaps most prominently in the command-line arguments for rsync.

(I can never remember which is correct for a given behavior, so I invariably choose wrong. 🤷🏻‍♀️)

> On Oct 16, 2022, at 11:16 AM, Lennart Poettering <mzkqt at 0pointer.de> wrote:
> 
> On Do, 13.10.22 00:56, Akbarkhon Variskhanov (akbarkhon.variskhanov at gmail.com) wrote:
> 
>> Hi.
>> 
>> I noticed that the default value has a trailing slash for both directories:
>> 
>>> If $XDG_DATA_DIRS is either not set or empty, a value equal to /usr/local/share/:/usr/share/ should be used.
>> 
>> I was wondering what's the benefit of including a trailing slash? Is
>> there a specific purpose to it or is it a typo? With all due respect,
>> it looks so out of place. Path-related variables usually strip it off.
>> 
>> Sorry if I'm asking in the wrong place.
> 
> Behaviour should be the same, hence it doesn't matter.
> 
> Note that the root dir "/" necessarily ends in a slash, so it might
> make sense to always suffix dirs like that, to make the root dir less
> special.
> 
> In systemd documentation we have the rule to always suffix dirs with
> "/", to communicate that they are dirs.
> 
> But seriously, whether to suffix dirs or not, effect is the same. And
> to some level it's a bikeshedding questions wether to suffix or not.
> 
> Lennart
> 
> --
> Lennart Poettering, Berlin