On 7/15/05, Dan Espen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > seventh guardian <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > On 7/15/05, Nick Fortune <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > I challenge you to do "ls ~ -la". I bet you would be lost. Having a > > > > program configuration dir would help to sort things out, and would > > > > benefit every one. > > > Done that. Not Lost. > > > What was your point? > > > > My point is that there are TONS of configuration dirs in your home > > dir, mixed with data/docs dirs, and unsorted files. And even though > > the configs are usually hidden, they should be inside one main hidden > > dir, instead of just being clogging your home dir. > > > > For instance, if you try to find the config dir for that particular > > program, and you don't know its name, then doing ls -la is useless, > > because (at least in my case) the terminal buffer overflows, so you > > can't see the first dirs that show up. Unless you pipe it to less, but > > then you loose the colour formating.. Making it a separate dir would > > allow you to have only config dirs showing, and not your docs or data > > dirs. > > Since configs aren't user data, why isn't the directory itself > hidden? Ie. ".config"? >
The main dir is in fact hidden, as it defaults to ~/.config. But it could be set to anything else, trough $XDG_CONFIG_HOME. > What is the standard for the second level name. For fvwm, > you suggested "fvwm" be the second level so you used the > project name. Menus on the other hand, just ended up in > a directory named "menus". > Humm i guess the project name can be the standard. It should be something unique, and the project name usually is unique. "menus" and "autostart" are also kind of unique, and these are spec'd, so no project can take up their names for the config dir. Also, I don't think this is restricted to using subdirs. I guess you could just put a file in there.. like using ~/.config/fvwm2rc or the like.. Not sure of this though.. must check it out. > Is this a widely adopted standard? How many other projects > have switched? > Xfce already uses this, kde and gnome should be switching. The rest I don't know... it could be checked out. Also, programs like "Terminal" (a great replacement for aterm) have been made compliant from scratch. > I think I understand the point, but here are some counter points: > > using "ls -al | less" is not the only way to list a directory, > there is: > > . just plain "ls -al" and then using the terminal scrolling to view > everything. > > . using mc > > . using emacs dired > > At home I have 150 dot files, at work 250. > I'd have a lot less if all other projects just did what > fvwm did, use a dot directory for all the files for the > project, then my .bashrc, .bash_profile, .bash_history, and > .bash_logout would all be in a .bash directory. I think using > project directories would bring the clutter down to manageable levels > without a common 'config' directory. > Lots of apps already do it, (except for stubborn bash :P). > With the new scheme, it will be harder to look at all of the files > since they will be spread thru a bunch of sub directories, most of them > containing only one file. > Not quite. If you are like me you would have a bin/, Downloads/, Caixote/ (storage box in portuguese), kylix3/, etc., and some of temporary unclassified files in your home dir. Compare it to not having them in the middle of the configs: you'd have less things in your way. > I don't normally search my home directory for anything other > than dot files. I don't keep any plain files there > and only a few directories like 'bin', 'src', 'public_html'. > > -- > Dan Espen E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > On 7/15/05, Stephen Dennison <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > My point is that there are TONS of configuration dirs in your home > > dir, mixed with data/docs dirs, and unsorted files. And even though > > the configs are usually hidden, they should be inside one main hidden > > dir, instead of just being clogging your home dir. > > Why not modify fvwm so that it looks in yet another location on > startup? It could even look there last, it wouldn't hurt anything, > would it? Seems like this is the only part that would need to be done > code-wise, the rest could be implemented in the fvwm config file and > not require any code changes. Then any ambitious individual that > wanted to implement this xdg compliance stuff could feel free to > provide a base config somewhere. > > Though, technically, if you wanted a clean home directory, you could > make your home directory be something like /home/username/.config, > then make your .bashrc or whatever cd you to /home/username - but then > if you do use something that automatically puts your home directory on > your desktop it would look strange. But even then you could remove > that link and make one to /home/username instead... Not sure how well > it would integrate with the 'home' feature inside file dialogs. > > > > > For instance, if you try to find the config dir for that particular > > program, and you don't know its name, then doing ls -la is useless, > > because (at least in my case) the terminal buffer overflows, so you > > can't see the first dirs that show up. Unless you pipe it to less, but > > then you loose the colour formating.. > > OT, but you can ls --color=always | less and you don't lose the color > formatting. But if you do that you can't grep for '^\.' because the > escape sequences for color codes get in the way... > > > Do you have a link to the actual standards document? I'm curious what > it entails... This is the specs main page. I know, some of the specs are useless garbage. But some are quite interesting: http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Standards > > --s.r.d. > Cheers
