Re: Dot files, get them out of the way

[Kelly Clowers <kelly.clowers@gmail.com>]

On Mon, Jul 8, 2013 at 7:55 AM, ha <hiei.arhiva@gmail.com> wrote:
> Thanks Ralph, I guess it would do it.
> But I didn't plan to separate the conf files completely, I was hoping for a
> solution more alike Wilko's (if it works).
> After all we all have .config file in our home directory.
> It makes sense that all applications write their conf files there, instead
> "randomly" all around home directory. I was hoping for a way to force that.
> I do not know if this is possible, nor how to do it.
> It's funny that /etc is so well organized, but noone cares to do the same
> with the conf files *for users*.
> ...or is it just me?


I agree... once there where not so very many dotfiles in ~, so it was
less of an issue.

Anyway, I try to file wishlist/enhancement bugs on programs I use, asking
them to follow (at least optionally) the XDG Base Directory Specification:
http://standards.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/basedir-spec-latest.html

Hopefully as I get better at programming I can offer patches with my
bugs as well.

I am really happy with the spec; ~/.local/share, ~/.cache and
~/.config make sense to me, and the way the spec is written it is easy
for a user to customize the locations (since they are env vars, not
hardcoded). There is a little library as well to make things even
easier (libxdg-basedir).


Cheers,
Kelly Clowers