Dotfiles matter! Please stop dumping files in users’ $HOME directories.

American_Jesus@lemm.ee to Linux@lemmy.ml – 672 points –
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Let's count them. (not including legacy or standard locations like .local, .config, or .cache, .ssh, and shell configuration files

  • .aws
  • .azure
  • .bun
  • .byobu
  • .cargo
  • .dbus
  • .docker
  • .dokku
  • .keychain
  • .kube
  • .minikube
  • .motd_shown
  • .node_repl_history
  • .npm
  • .nuxt
  • .nuxtrc
  • .nvm
  • .oh-my-zsh
  • .pack
  • .psql_history
  • .pyenv
  • .python_history
  • .redhat
  • .ruff_cache
  • .rustup
  • .selected_editor
  • .sqlite_history
  • .sudo_as_admin_successful
  • .tmux.conf
  • .tox
  • .ts_node_repl_history
  • .vim
  • .viminfo
  • .vimrc
  • .vscode-server
  • .wget-hsts
  • .yarn

And a couple more, non-hidden files for Go.

  • go
  • sdk/go1.20

i can almost ignore the hidden ones, but ~/go? no thats just rude

Why aren't all of these just normal directories under either .local (for data files) or .config (for configuration)???

Actually, I think the XDG directories should be under a single XDG directory either dotted or not (a better name would be OK with me) ~/xdg/Documents, ~/xdg/Music, ~/xdg/Pictures etc.

Documents, Music, etc actually are configurable. Just edit ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs

I also had to (under KDE)

  • Edit the settings for each of the folders in Dolphin (The file manager)

  • Edit the location of the desktop folder in the settings found by right-clicking the desktop and going into "Configure Desktop and Wallpaper" Location.

  • Edit the show item by choosing Custom Location, and adding the XDG directory for the desktop. This setting may not stick.

That's the beauty: XDG compliant applications are entirely configurable using standardized environment variables.

afaik, tmux can use ~/.config/tmux/tmux.conf or something, if ~/.tmux is not found

If these were links to issues that could be reacted to, I'd totally do that.

Is it a problem to change this?