[Xfce-bugs] [XFCE 0000257]: $HOME/.config/xfce4/

[xfce-bugs at xfce.org]

A BUGNOTE has been added to this bug.
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http://bugs.xfce.org/view_bug_page.php?f_id=0000257
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Reporter:                   milky
Handler:                    
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Project:                    XFCE
Bug ID:                     0000257
Category:                   general
Reproducibility:            N/A
Severity:                   feature
Priority:                   normal
Status:                     new
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Date Submitted:             2004-07-13 02:26 GMT
Last Modified:              2004-07-13 13:54 GMT
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Summary:                    $HOME/.config/xfce4/
Description: 
I was a bit amused as I read today in the freshmeat newsletter:
"... A priority is adherence to standards, specifically those
defined at freedesktop.org."

since XFCE misses the IMO most important (ok, maybe not) standardization
effort of freedesktop: the use of the $HOME/.config/ directory to get
rid of the hundreds of (not really hidden) dotfiles in users home dirs.

  http://freedesktop.org/Standards/config-spec

Actually that recommendation talks about some XDG_whatever variable
and "~/.config/" only as fallback, but nevertheless - that's what I'm
asking for.

Sure XFCE has already some new environment variable (every program
has a different!) one could use to redirect config file scans to
("XFCE4_HOME" or so?) and I could eventually hack that myself into
the source. But I'd actually like to see this supported by default.

There is no need to abandon "~/.xfce4/" now or completely, but the
libs/apps should also check for existence of "~/.config/xfce4/" and
use that when it's there (the old "~/.xfce4/" furthermore only as
fallback).
Some users may prefer to keep it by its current name, others (me)
may like the important config files in _one_ directory, so for
example automated backup scripts could more easily find it.

Please think about it. And it's probably easy to code in anyhow!


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-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 olivier - 2004-07-13 05:46 GMT 
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- Such sarcastic comments tend to make me in a bad mood!
- What you are talking about is not a spec, it's a plan!
- Xfce doesn't use gconf and won't unless gconf becomes a standard
- All config files are in $HOME/.xfce4/ ie its in one directory!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 olivier - 2004-07-13 06:11 GMT 
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BTW, I think using "XFCE4HOME" will do the trick (although not all plugins
make use of it in 4.0.6, notable exceptions being xfwm4 and iconbox
plugins - That ashould be fixed in CVS)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 milky - 2004-07-13 13:42 GMT 
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Wasn't meant to be sarcastic or something that way, it just read somehow
funny from my point of view :)
(I had only this weekend got a copy of the xfce4 tarball, and was pretty
happy to see a bugfix release [cropped icons] only two days later; that is
I've almost converted from many years of using blackbox/openbox).

Btw, I'm also really thankful that you don't use gconf (not really useful
thing as of yet, and there better / more lightweight alternatives).

I know you only put one dot directory (.xfce4) into the $HOME dir, but
still this adds to the many others that shouldn't be there. That's because
many other 'open file' dialogs often simply show _all_ files, and so home
dirs get really poorly browseable over time. I found myself constantly
deleting a few, but it's almost like www popups these days (if it wasn't
that I use mozilla/fox ;)

Whatever, you aren't interested in that ~/.config/ thing (plan or spec) at
all? Could it be made working anyhow, or would every xfce extension need
to be patched - I thought that mcs* lib was for config access?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 huysmans - 2004-07-13 13:54 GMT 
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Put this in your ~/.bash_profile:

export XFCE4HOME=/home/milky/.config/xfce4