/!\ Warning:
This is only a proposal at this time, and not approved for project-wide application.
This should not be applied before being officially turned into a GNOME Goal.

GNOME Goal: XDG config folder implementation

Guidelines

GNOME's hidden folders structure is split over various directories: .gnome, .gnome2, .gnome-private, .gconf, .gconfd. Some application even store data outside of these directories. Further, it is a mix of various files. Sometimes it is used as a cache (could be removed to gain disk space), or it containers user settings.

The problem is described in detail in this post.

FreeDesktop has issued a recomendation. This GNOME goals target is to implement the specification.

In order for this Goal to be successful, it is important to take the time and to be sure that each maintainer really understands the specification. This is NOT about just moving hidden .folder in a huge .config. It's about separation of user data, preferences and cache element. Further, backwards compatibility also has to be kept into account. Lastly, it might be a huge amount of work regarding Gconf. How to handle gconf in this context is still to be decided.

Tips : if you remove the .cache folder, the user MUST not notice it except maybe for performance (might be huge performance drop). If you remove the .config folder, the user will see all the preferences reset to the default but without any data loss. In fact, it would not be a problem if the user didn't customize his desktop. A contrario, .local should be treated as any other user file.

Read this more detailled explanation of the XDG specification.

Bonus point: if the user chooses a default preference, this preference should not be saved anywhere and the corresponding entry in the config file should be empty (or "default" or whatever). This way, we are sure that an user does not keep the 10 years old default without even noticing it and that his default setup is correctly upgraded.

If you use Ubuntu, you might want to vote for this proposition.

{i} Instructions on how to recognize a module affected by this goal.

The application is a target for this goal if:

Example

A good example are the empathy patches by fpeters:

Comments before approval

{i} Add your comments to this goal proposal here

Quoting vuntz here: This is not official because we need to do it right (from a compatibility point of view, eg). Replacing the old directories in your code will mean to "lose" any stuff in the old ones. E.g. you should have a "list_files_from_before_224" function. It's a topic that is way more complex than it first appears.

Status of this goal

{i} Tip: If you choose to work on a module, create the bug report on the GNOME bugzilla. This way people will know someone already works on it, and won't duplicate the work you're doing.
/!\ Please make the bug report depend on the tracker bug for this goal.

State

Markup

todo

<: #ff8080> todo

patch

<: #ffc849> [[GnomeBug:xxxxx|patch]]

done

<: #80ff80> [[GnomeBug:xxxxx|done]]

not needed

<: #80ff80> not needed

Above are the states and corresponding markup to update the modules state table below.

Tarball

Status

Desktop

alacarte

to do

brasero

done

bug-buddy

to do

cheese

done

dasher

to do

deskbar-applet

done

ekiga

to do

empathy

done

eog

to do

epiphany

to do

evince

to do

evolution-data-server

to do

evolution

to do

evolution-exchange

to do

evolution-webcal

to do

fast-user-switch-applet

to do

file-roller

patch

gcalctool

not needed

gconf-editor

to do

gdm

to do

gedit

to do

gnome-applets

to do

gnome-backgrounds

to do

gnome-control-center

to do

gnome-desktop

to do

gnome-desktop-sharp

to do

gnome-doc-utils

to do

gnome-games

to do

gnome-icon-theme

to do

gnome-keyring

to do

gnome-netstatus

to do

gnome-nettool

to do

gnome-mag

to do

gnome-media

to do

gnome-menus

to do

gnome-panel

to do

gnome-power-manager

to do

gnome-python-desktop

to do

gnome-screensaver

to do

gnome-session

to do

gnome-settings-daemon

to do

gnome-sharp

to do

gnome-speech

to do

gnome-system-monitor

to do

gnome-system-tools

to do

gnome-terminal

to do

gnome-themes

to do

gnome-user-docs

to do

gnome-user-share

to do

gnome-utils

to do

gok

to do

gstreamer

to do

gst-plugins-base

to do

gst-plugins-good

to do

gtk-engines

to do

gtkhtml

to do

gtksourceview

to do

gucharmap

to do

gvfs

to do

hamster-applet

patch

libgail-gnome

not needed

libgnomekbd

not needed

libgtop

not needed

libgweather

not needed

liboobs

not needed

librsvg

not needed

libsoup

not needed

libwnck

not needed

metacity

done

mousetweaks

to do

nautilus

to do

orca

to do

pygtksourceview

not needed

seahorse

not needed

sound-juicer

to do

swfdec-gnome

to do

tomboy

done

totem-pl-parser

not needed

totem

done

vinagre

done

vino

to do

vte

to do

yelp

to do

zenity

not needed

Desktop (to be deprecated)

libgnomeprint

to do

libgnomeprintui

to do

Platform

GConf

to do

at-spi

to do

atk

to do

glib

to do

gtk+

to do

gtk-doc

to do

pango

to do

Platform (to be deprecated)

ORBit2

to do

audiofile

to do

esound

to do

gnome-mime-data

to do

gnome-vfs

to do

gnome-vfs-monikers

to do

libIDL

to do

libart_lgpl

to do

libbonobo

to do

libbonoboui

to do

libglade

to do

libgnome

to do

libgnomecanvas

to do

libgnomeui

to do

Admin

pessulus

to do

sabayon

to do

Development Tools

accerciser

to do

anjuta

done

devhelp

to do

gdl

to do

glade3

to do

gnome-devel-docs

to do

Bindings (C++)

glibmm

to do

pangomm

to do

gtkmm

to do

libglademm

to do

gconfmm

to do

libgnomecanvasmm

to do

libgnome-vfsmm

to do

libgnomemm

to do

libgnomeuimm

to do

libxml++

to do

Bindings (java)

glib-java (jg-common)

to do

libgtk-java

to do

libgnome-java

to do

libgconf-java

to do

libglade-java

to do

Bindings (mono)

gtk-sharp

to do

Bindings (perl)

Glib

to do

Gtk2

to do

Gtk2-GladeXML

to do

Gnome2-GConf

to do

Gnome2-Canvas

to do

Gnome2-VFS

to do

Gnome2

to do

Bindings (python)

pygobject

to do

pygtk

to do

pyorbit

to do

gnome-python

to do

Mobile

GConf (dbus-based)

to do

evolution-data-server (dbus-based)

to do

clutter-gst

to do

External Dependencies

avahi

to do

cairo

to do

cairomm

to do

clutter

to do

clutter-cairo

to do

clutter-gtk

to do

conduit

to do

dbus

to do

dbus-glib

to do

dbus-python

to do

desktop-file-utils

to do

DeviceKit

to do

DeviceKit-disks

to do

DeviceKit-power

to do

enchant

to do

expat

to do

farsight2

to do

fontconfig

to do

gamin

to do

gnutls

to do

gpgme

to do

gtk-vnc

to do

hal

to do

hicolor-icon-theme

to do

icon-naming-utils

to do

intltool

to do

iso-codes

to do

libatasmart

to do

libcanberra

to do

libcolorblind

to do

libcroco

to do

libgda

to do

libggz, ggz-client-libs

to do

libgpg-error

to do

libgcrypt

to do

libical

to do

libmapi

to do

libmusicbrainz

to do

libnotify

to do

liboil

to do

libproxy

to do

libtasn1

to do

libtelepathy

to do

libxklavier

to do

libxml2

to do

libxslt

to do

Mono.Addins

to do

mozilla (firefox)

to do

ndesk-dbus

to do

ndesk-dbus-glib

to do

opal

to do

pkg-config

to do

PolicyKit

to do

PolicyKit-gnome

to do

pulseaudio

to do

poppler

to do

pycairo

to do

ptlib

to do

Python

to do

rarian

to do

shared-mime-info

to do

sqlite

to do

startup-notification

to do

swfdec

to do

system-tools-backends

to do

telepathy-glib

to do

telepathy-mission-control

to do

unique

to do

Other

abiword

to do

atomix

to do

banshee

done

banter

to do

beagle

to do

contact-lookup-applet

to do

dia

to do

eggcups

to do

f-spot

to do

gimp

to do

gnome-blog

to do

gnome-bluetooth

to do

gnome-cups-manager

to do

gnome-disk-utility

to do

gnome-main-menu

to do

GNOME Phone Manager

to do

gnome-pilot

to do

Gnumeric

to do

gnome-mud

to do

goffice

to do

goocanvas

to do

goocanvasmm

to do

GParted

to do

gossip

to do

gtetrinet

to do

gthumb

to do

gtranslator

to do

krb5-auth-dialog

to do

libbtctl

to do

libchamplain

to do

libgda

to do

libgnomekbd

to do

libgoffice

to do

libgsf

not needed

nautilus-sendto

to do

nautilus-vcs

to do

NetworkManager

to do

planner

to do

rhythmbox

done

xchat-gnome

to do

GnomeGoals/XDGConfigFolders (last edited 2009-11-02 17:21:30 by Zaspire)