> On 19 Aug 2019, at 13:43, Dave via Python-list <python-list@python.org> wrote:
>
> The plan for an app that I'm doing was to use SQLite for data and to hold the
> preference settings as some apps do. The plan was changed last week to allow
> the user to select the location of the data files (SQLite) rather than
> putting it where the OS would dictate. Ok with that, but it brings up some
> questions. First, I will need to have a file that points to the location of
> the data file since that can't be hard coded. Second, if I have to have a
> file that is likely part of the application group of files, would it make
> more sense to use a more traditional preferences file? How have other Python
> app developers done in this case?
There are expected locations for config files and data files on each OS.
On macOS you would use ~/Library/Preferences/ and put a file or a folder of
files in there.
The convention is use your website name as the base name of the file or folder.
For example for scm-workbench I use: org.barrys-emacs.scm-workbench as the
folder name for
all the scm-workbench files.
On Windows you can use a file or folder in %APPDATA% that is named after your
app. You should
find the folder by doing a win32 API call to get the value. See
getPreferencesDir() in
https://github.com/barry-scott/scm-workbench/blob/master/Source/Common/wb_platform_win32_specific.py
<https://github.com/barry-scott/scm-workbench/blob/master/Source/Common/wb_platform_win32_specific.py>
for how to get the value.
On Linux the XDG spec says that you should put config files in
~/.config/<app-name> and data files
in ~/.local/share/<app-name>. Doing XDG to the spec is a little involved. I
have some experimental
code that implements the logic for config the XdgConfigPath class in:
https://github.com/barry-scott/CLI-tools/blob/master/Source/smart_find/__init__.py
<https://github.com/barry-scott/CLI-tools/blob/master/Source/smart_find/__init__.py>
Putting a file directly in the $HOME folder is no longer recommended.
The format of the config data you are free to choose.
I have been using JSON files recently as it allow for structured data.
Barry
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