xdg

Provides an implementation of the XDG Base Directory Specification. The specification defines a set of standard paths for storing application files, including data and configuration files. For portability and flexibility reasons, applications should use the XDG defined locations instead of hardcoding paths. The package also includes the locations of well known user directories. The current implementation supports Windows, Mac OS and most flavors of Unix.

Full documentation can be found at: https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/adrg/xdg.

Installation

go get github.com/adrg/xdg

Default locations

The package defines sensible defaults for XDG variables which are empty or not present in the environment.

XDG Base Directory

	Unix	Mac OS	Windows
XDG_DATA_HOME	~/.local/share	~/Library/Application Support	%LOCALAPPDATA%
XDG_DATA_DIRS	/usr/local/share /usr/share	/Library/Application Support	%APPDATA%\Roaming %PROGRAMDATA%
XDG_CONFIG_HOME	~/.config	~/Library/Preferences	%LOCALAPPDATA%
XDG_CONFIG_DIRS	/etc/xdg	/Library/Preferences	%PROGRAMDATA%
XDG_CACHE_HOME	~/.cache	~/Library/Caches	%LOCALAPPDATA%\cache
XDG_RUNTIME_DIR	/run/user/UID	~/Library/Application Support	%LOCALAPPDATA%

XDG user directories

	Unix	Mac OS	Windows
XDG_DESKTOP_DIR	~/Desktop	~/Desktop	%USERPROFILE%/Desktop
XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR	~/Downloads	~/Downloads	%USERPROFILE%/Downloads
XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR	~/Documents	~/Documents	%USERPROFILE%/Documents
XDG_MUSIC_DIR	~/Music	~/Music	%USERPROFILE%/Music
XDG_PICTURES_DIR	~/Pictures	~/Pictures	%USERPROFILE%/Pictures
XDG_VIDEOS_DIR	~/Videos	~/Movies	%USERPROFILE%/Videos
XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR	~/Templates	~/Templates	%USERPROFILE%/Templates
XDG_PUBLICSHARE_DIR	~/Public	~/Public	%PUBLIC%

Non-standard directories

Application directories

Unix:
- $XDG_DATA_HOME/applications
- ~/.local/share/applications
- /usr/local/share/applications
- /usr/share/applications
- $XDG_DATA_DIRS/applications

Mac OS:
- /Applications

Windows:
- %APPDATA%\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs

Font Directories

Unix:
- $XDG_DATA_HOME/fonts
- ~/.fonts
- ~/.local/share/fonts
- /usr/local/share/fonts
- /usr/share/fonts
- $XDG_DATA_DIRS/fonts

Mac OS:
- ~/Library/Fonts
- /Library/Fonts
- /System/Library/Fonts
- /Network/Library/Fonts

Windows:
- %windir%\Fonts
- %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Fonts

Usage

XDG Base Directory

package main

import (
	"log"

	"github.com/adrg/xdg"
)

func main() {
	// XDG Base Directory paths.
	log.Println("Home config directory:", xdg.DataHome)
	log.Println("Data directories:", xdg.DataDirs)
	log.Println("Home config directory:", xdg.ConfigHome)
	log.Println("Config directories:", xdg.ConfigDirs)
	log.Println("Cache directory:", xdg.CacheHome)
	log.Println("Runtime directory:", xdg.RuntimeDir)

	// Non-standard directories.
	log.Println("Application directories:", xdg.ApplicationDirs)
	log.Println("Font directories:", xdg.FontDirs)

	// Obtain a suitable location for application config files.
	// ConfigFile takes one parameter which must contain the name of the file,
	// but it can also contain a set of parent directories. If the directories
	// don't exists, they will be created relative to the base config directory.
	configFilePath, err := xdg.ConfigFile("appname/config.yaml")
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
	log.Println("Save the config file at:", configFilePath)

	// For other types of application files use:
	// xdg.DataFile()
	// xdg.CacheFile()
	// xdg.RuntimeFile()

	// Finding application config files.
	// SearchConfigFile takes one parameter which must contain the name of
	// the file, but it can also contain a set of parent directories relative
	// to the config search paths (xdg.ConfigHome and xdg.ConfigDirs).
	configFilePath, err = xdg.SearchConfigFile("appname/config.yaml")
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
	log.Println("Config file was found at:", configFilePath)

	// For other types of application files use:
	// xdg.SearchDataFile()
	// xdg.SearchCacheFile()
	// xdg.SearchRuntimeFile()
}

XDG user directories

package main

import (
	"log"

	"github.com/adrg/xdg"
)

func main() {
	// XDG user directories.
	log.Println("Desktop directory:", xdg.UserDirs.Desktop)
	log.Println("Download directory:", xdg.UserDirs.Download)
	log.Println("Documents directory:", xdg.UserDirs.Documents)
	log.Println("Music directory:", xdg.UserDirs.Music)
	log.Println("Pictures directory:", xdg.UserDirs.Pictures)
	log.Println("Videos directory:", xdg.UserDirs.Videos)
	log.Println("Templates directory:", xdg.UserDirs.Templates)
	log.Println("Public directory:", xdg.UserDirs.PublicShare)
}

Stargazers over time

Contributing

Contributions in the form of pull requests, issues or just general feedback, are always welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.MD.

Contributors: adrg, wichert.

References

For more information see:

• XDG Base Directory Specification
• XDG user directories

Buy me a coffee

If you found this project useful and want to support it, consider buying me a coffee.

License

Copyright (c) 2014 Adrian-George Bostan.

This project is licensed under the MIT license. See LICENSE for more details.