Erroneously naming it "XDG-spec" is not very good, though. It is the "XDG Base Directory Specification", just one of several XDG specs.

* https://freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/

* https://standards.freedesktop.org/

I agree that seeing a bunch of ~/.<app> directories is annoying, but at the same time I do think that it makes sense for each application to manage its own hierarchy, rooted under e.g. ~/.apps/<app> instead of splitting it into ~/.config/<app>, ~/.local/share/<app>, etc.

Regardless, I think it probably makes sense to have a uniform interface for getting said directories, so that however the OS decides things should be laid out, the developer just needs to `local_config_dir(app_name)`. If the user (or at least administrator) can decide between <app>/<function> and <function>/<app>, all the better.

The reason ~/.config/app is superior, is that then you can e.g. backup all your configs, or remove your cache, or store ~/.local and ~/.cache on a local fs and the rest of ~ on NFS.

Do you have to use ~/.config/app/ or could you just use ~/.config/app.conf?

I am having an impossible time verifying this, but I recall reading that MacOS deletes unaccessed files eventually from `~/Library/Caches/*`. Which would be a compelling reason to use that for cache. (Not being able to verify this I didn't add it to the article)

If anyone can verify that I'm either right or wrong here that would be helpful.

OSX does not automatically delete from that directory. See: https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/Ge...

> Your app is responsible for cleaning out cache data files when they are no longer needed. The system does not delete files from this directory.

However, many third-party tools delete from that directory with minimal caution if any, so it's a good idea to consider it ephemeral.

appreciate the clarification!

Regrettably, OSX recommends the use of the Library/Application Support directory, and provides several utility APIs for getting config/cache/data locations which point there as well: https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/Ge...

In general, if I'm targeting OSX, I use those locations as recommended, but make symlinks to relevant config/etc. from there to the XDG-suggested locations.

Yes, also it should be in the top half, #12 makes it sound not very important. Certainly before "be fancy."