Hello! There are multiple reports about the negative effects of Guix setting variables such as XDG_DATA_DIRS on foreign distributions, that may cause problems a severe as locking users out of their graphical session [0].
In my opinion, we should pursue patching every application/library to use a Guix-specific variant, e.g. GUIX_XDG_DATA_DIRS instead of XDG_DATA_DIRS, to avoid interfering with the host system, as was done for GUIX_PYTHONPATH. This is a big task in itself; we can open more focused/actionable tasks for each environment variable, starting with those causing the most serious issues. Any takers? Maxim [0] https://issues.guix.gnu.org/26202
