Re: Location for user installed plugin libraries and icons

[Jon Gough <jonsgough@gmail.com>]

    Hi,
         Thanks for the info, I thought this may be the case. Using that
      it is easy to install and uninstall plugins from the main program.
      The uninstall can be just the plugin resources or the plugin
      resources and configuration items as well and we can ask the user
      what level of uninstall they intend.
      
         One thought though, what happens if the main application, the
      'deb', is uninstalled? Should the plugin resources be left or
      uninstalled, what about the configurations? Once the main app has
      been uninstalled there is no way for the user to easily
      uninstall/remove left over stuff. As far as I can see most users
      only know about Downloads, Documents, etc., but nothing about
      directories that contain '.' as the leading character (most
      desktops hide these directories).
      
      Thanks
      Jon

On 6/5/21 10:01 am, Benoît Rouits wrote:

> Hi Jon,
>       
>       
>       Maybe it would be preferable to use the XDG recommendation ?
>       
>       
>       
>       App configuration, and plugins configuration too:
>       
>       XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-$HOME/.config/[MyTLD]/[MyApplication]/
>       
>       
>       User installed plugins resources:
>       
>       XDG_DATA_HOME:-$HOME/.local/share/[MyTLD]/[MyApplication]/
>       
>       
>       
>       *where MyTLD is a top-level unique 'domain' that avoids name
>       clashing between apps.
>       
>       
>       More to read here:
>       
>       https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/
>       
>       
>       HTH,
>       
>        Benoît
>       
>       Le 06/05/2021 à 01:36, Jon Gough a écrit :
>       
> > Hi List,
> >         
> >             I am working on a user driven plugin management process for
> >         an application which is installed via a 'deb' file. The
> >         application is installed using 'root' privileges, but the
> >         plugins need to be installable by the user without root
> >         privileges. The plugins will consist of libs, icons, etc. that
> >         are used to 'run' the plugin and user updateable config files
> >         used to 'control' the plugin.
> >         
> >         
> >             If the plugin was installed by a 'deb' file it would put
> >         libs and supplied icons in a system area, i.e. /usr or
> >         /usr/local, and the updateable config files in a user writeable
> >         area, i.e. $HOME/.<application>/. What would be a suitable
> >         location for the libs, icons, etc. for the user installed
> >         plugin?
> >         
> >         
> >         Many thanks
> >         
> >         Jon
> >         
> >         
> >       
>       
>