Config files in ~/.config instead of ~/

dannytatom · 2009-02-07 19:04:27

This isn't much about DEs, but its the most relevant place I could think of.

Anywho, I get tired of seeing so many dot files in my home dir and only a few in ~/.config. To me, they should all be in ~/.config since they're all config files and that just keeps everything looking cleaner.
So my question is, is there a global path for config files that apps use? So that I could somehow change the path to ~/.config, move all the dot files there, and everything would work like a charm. Or, is there more to it than that?

SamC · 2009-02-07 19:12:33

Generally, it's up to apps where they store config files. Some follow the freedesktop specification, which has a variable they should use, normally ~/.config. You could, I suppose, symlink files to/from ~/.config, but that wouldn't change much.

haxit · 2009-02-07 19:16:13

So you can free yourself, you could have this setup:
/
/home (all . files)
/docs (all you documents...)

pauldonnelly · 2009-02-07 20:57:33

You've got to wonder why developers generally write their programs to put configs in ~/ . It's annoying to me as well. Don't see much way around it except patching every program I run. Might be worth it though.

moljac024 · 2009-02-07 21:00:30

I find this so damn annoying, why does almost every app have to pollute the home directory like that ?
I really do get happy to see something with configs in ~/.config...I mean, seriously, what's so hard about doing that ?

kakTuZ · 2009-02-07 21:15:31

Interesting point. I found the specification here http://standards.freedesktop.org/basedi … c-0.6.html.
And the variable XDG_CONFIG_HOME=/home/kaktuz/.config exists in the environment and looks good.

userlander · 2009-02-07 21:15:31

What's worse are programs that write to ~/ with regular files, like a lot of games that will dump log files there (log.001 log.002 game.001 ). At least the dot files can be kept hidden.

weasel8 · 2009-02-07 22:53:19

I actually prefer my config files in ~/, unless there are multiple files for one app. E.g., for conky, ~/.conkyrc is fine, but for openbox, ~/.config/openbox is the right place for the three config files.

In fact, it REALLY annoys me when an app with only one config file creates a whole new directory for it. For example, tint2 insists on ~/.config/tint2/tint2rc -- really irritating. The only time I ever type the name of a config file is to edit it, and vi .xbindkeysrc is much faster than tediously typing out, say, vi .config/xbindkeys/xbindkeyrc EVERY TIME.

That's my opinion: if you have a single config file, put it as a dotfile in ~/; otherwise it goes into your own dir in ~/.config. Oh, and I think it ought to be ~/.cfg instead of ~/.config--faster to type, and fits with the rest of the Linux directory tree (/usr, /bin, /etc, /dev, and so on).

Inxsible · 2009-02-07 23:25:13

weasel8 wrote:

[...snip]
vi .xbindkeysrc is much faster than tediously typing out, say, vi .config/xbindkeys/xbindkeyrc EVERY TIME.
[..snip] Oh, and I think it ought to be ~/.cfg instead of ~/.config--faster to type [..snip]

But that's why they have aliases to lessen the typing

moljac024 · 2009-02-07 23:50:12

Inxsible wrote:

weasel8 wrote:
[...snip]
vi .xbindkeysrc is much faster than tediously typing out, say, vi .config/xbindkeys/xbindkeyrc EVERY TIME.
[..snip] Oh, and I think it ought to be ~/.cfg instead of ~/.config--faster to type [..snip]
But that's why they have aliases to lessen the typing

Also, you should try hitting TAB, there's this wonderful thing called auto-completion. It's really great and you're missing out

stabele · 2009-02-10 11:18:17

Well, I set my home to /home/<username>/.cfg and it works great. Yes, many open-file dialogs opens $HOME by default, but still it is worth for me...

jarryson · 2009-02-10 11:32:20

better to report this advice to application writer.

i have already report some, and some of them did.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-02-07 19:04:27

Config files in ~/.config instead of ~/

#2 2009-02-07 19:12:33

Re: Config files in ~/.config instead of ~/

#3 2009-02-07 19:16:13

Re: Config files in ~/.config instead of ~/

#4 2009-02-07 20:57:33

Re: Config files in ~/.config instead of ~/

#5 2009-02-07 21:00:30

Re: Config files in ~/.config instead of ~/

#6 2009-02-07 21:15:31

Re: Config files in ~/.config instead of ~/

#7 2009-02-07 21:15:31

Re: Config files in ~/.config instead of ~/

#8 2009-02-07 22:53:19

Re: Config files in ~/.config instead of ~/

#9 2009-02-07 23:25:13

Re: Config files in ~/.config instead of ~/

#10 2009-02-07 23:50:12

Re: Config files in ~/.config instead of ~/

#11 2009-02-10 11:18:17

Re: Config files in ~/.config instead of ~/

#12 2009-02-10 11:32:20

Re: Config files in ~/.config instead of ~/

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