Re: /.cache directory
On Fri, Sep 26, 2025 at 4:45 AM Jeffrey Walton <noloader@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Thu, Sep 25, 2025 at 1:40 PM <debian-user@howorth.org.uk> wrote:
> >
> > Andy Smith <andy@strugglers.net> wrote:
> > > On Thu, Sep 25, 2025 at 09:29:32PM +0530, Avinash Sonawane wrote:
> > > > I noticed that there is a directory named ".cache" at root level. It
> > > > seems to be created at the time of installation. What is it?
> > >
> > > It's one of the XDG standard directories.
> > >
> > > https://specifications.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/latest/
Really? Could you please quote the exact XDG spec paragraph/line for
`/` being a possible value for `$HOME` or `/.cache` being a possible
value for `$XDG_CACHE_HOME` as per the standard?
> > > > Who has created it?
> > >
> > > Probably put there as part of user creation but all apps that need to
> > > use it will also (re-)create it if you delete it.
Cool! Could you please let me know exactly which package needs/uses
`/.cache` so that I can report a bug against it?
> I was thinking something similar... Sudo or another program scrubbed
> the environment. $HOME became empty, so "$HOME/.cache" became
> "/.cache".
And that's an expected behavior? Not a bug?
On Fri, Sep 26, 2025 at 4:45 AM Jeffrey Walton <noloader@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Thu, Sep 25, 2025 at 1:40 PM <debian-user@howorth.org.uk> wrote:
> >
> > Andy Smith <andy@strugglers.net> wrote:
> > > On Thu, Sep 25, 2025 at 09:29:32PM +0530, Avinash Sonawane wrote:
> > > > I noticed that there is a directory named ".cache" at root level. It
> > > > seems to be created at the time of installation. What is it?
> > >
> > > It's one of the XDG standard directories.
> > >
> > > https://specifications.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/latest/
> > >
> > > > Who has created it?
> > >
> > > Probably put there as part of user creation but all apps that need to
> > > use it will also (re-)create it if you delete it.
> >
> > I'm confused. It's part of a user's directories, and defaults to
> > $HOME/.cache so surely it should be under /root not under / ?
> >
> > The OP could test it by setting an explict value for $XDG_CACHE_HOME in
> > root's environment and seeing if that makes any difference.
>
> I was thinking something similar... Sudo or another program scrubbed
> the environment. $HOME became empty, so "$HOME/.cache" became
> "/.cache".
>
> > > > Seems to be a bug in some package which has created it...
> > >
> > > "Everything I don't understand is a bug"
>
> Words of wisdom.
>
> Jeff
>
--
Avinash Sonawane
https://www.rootkea.me
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