There’s quite a lot of programs that make use of XDG_CONFIG, with the default set to .config in most distros. However, there’s also quite a few programs that have rejected this, sticking with a format that is not XDG-conforming.
One such example is OpenSSH, as can be seen in the following page - it makes use of the ~/.ssh directory. Why is that OpenSSH does not conform to this specification? Are there any security vulnerabilities? If so, then shouldn’t there be another specification by Freedesktop.org, which allots a secure directory for the same?
Consistency and separation.
If I need to clear out any caches or temporary files, I don’t need to dig around in a bunch of dot-directories to figure out what’s safe to delete and what’s a configuration file. I can wholesale
rm -rf ~/.cache.It’s also convenient for distro hopping or backing up files. If every program kept temporary and transient files in the same directory, you would need filters for each different non-conforming program. For anything conforming to XDG base directory specifications, different types of files are all under well-known directories.
More subjectively, I hold the opinion that my home directory is mine. Programs shouldn’t be littering the root of my user folder with their crap (looking at you,
~/go).All in all, XDG base directories solve a problem that isn’t covered in any other specification. If POSIX defined a similar specification, such as having config files relegated to
~/.local/etc/some-program, I wouldn’t be here.Shit y’know what, fair enough. I never had your particular needs, and I’d probably still have to double check a cache location in case the app didn’t comply, but I feel you