On a tangent: it bugs me that the default XDG directory structure doesn't fully match the standard Linux directory structure. What's with these inconsistent defaults?
XDG_DATA_HOME="$HOME/.local/share" # okay, reasonable
XDG_CONFIG_HOME="$HOME/.config" # ...uh, pardon?
XDG_STATE_HOME="$HOME/.local/state" # well at least it's in ~/.local
XDG_CACHE_HOME="$HOME/.cache" # ...but this one ain't; what in tarnation?
It'd make more sense to be consistent with how system-wide applications use /usr or /usr/local, like so:
This would make $XDG_(CONFIG|STATE|CACHE)_HOME consistent with $XDG_DATA_HOME, and also consistent with existing conventions around ~/.local/bin and ~/.local/lib.
The XDG spec ain't the only naughty naughty boy here, either. Flatpak puts all of its application data in ~/.var/app, whereas it'd make a lot more sense in ~/.local/var/lib/flatpak/app. And of course, the subject of Boxxy (and, as others mentioned, xdg-ninja) is the countless apps contributing further to the chaos.
Of course, all this would stop being an issue entirely if Linux would just embrace union mounts like Plan 9 did and overlay everything onto /bin, /lib, /share, /etc, and so on. Hell, if I were the not-so-benevolent dictator for life of the Linux ecosystem I'd take the opportunity to rename all those weird UNIX™ vestiges, too, like /etc→/conf and /var→/data - but if we're gonna hang on to those vestiges, the least XDG could do is encourage consistency with them.
Maybe I just need to make my own distro and finally say goodbye to what little remains of my sanity.
The XDG spec ain't the only naughty naughty boy here, either. Flatpak puts all of its application data in ~/.var/app, whereas it'd make a lot more sense in ~/.local/var/lib/flatpak/app. And of course, the subject of Boxxy (and, as others mentioned, xdg-ninja) is the countless apps contributing further to the chaos.
Of course, all this would stop being an issue entirely if Linux would just embrace union mounts like Plan 9 did and overlay everything onto /bin, /lib, /share, /etc, and so on. Hell, if I were the not-so-benevolent dictator for life of the Linux ecosystem I'd take the opportunity to rename all those weird UNIX™ vestiges, too, like /etc→/conf and /var→/data - but if we're gonna hang on to those vestiges, the least XDG could do is encourage consistency with them.
Maybe I just need to make my own distro and finally say goodbye to what little remains of my sanity.