Where can I set system-wide $XDG_CONFIG_HOME?

[VinzC]

Hi.

This is something I've been struggling with for a couple of years and I thought I had found something but I was plain wrong. So here it is.

By default Xfce stores its data in ~/.config and ~/.cache and I want these directories in ~/.xfce4/(config|cache) instead. So I thought I could set these in /etc/env.d/90xsession:

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XDG_CONFIG_HOME=~/.xfce4/config
XDG_CACHE_HOME=~/.xfce4/cache

but it doesn't work:

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XDG_CONFIG_HOME='~/.xfce4/config'
XDG_CACHE_HOME='~/.xfce4/cache'

Mind the single quotes:

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ls: no such file or directory

I've tried inserting "$HOME" but it doesn't work either:

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XDG_CONFIG_HOME=$HOME/.xfce4/config
XDG_CACHE_HOME=$HOME/.xfce4/cache

but it doesn't work:

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XDG_CONFIG_HOME=HOME/.xfce4/config
XDG_CACHE_HOME=HOME/.xfce4/cache

...

I've yet tried to set these in ~/.bashrc, in /etc/bash/bashrc, ~/.bash_profile... No! way! Xfce xinit script still obsesses on creating these damn directories directly under my HOME directory.

Can anyone tell me where the heck I can put these directives?

Thanks a lot in advance.

[sebaro]

You can try put it in /etc/env.d/30xdg-data-local, or you can use export:

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export XDG_CONFIG_HOME="$HOME/.xfce4/config"

But remember that all programs use those directories not only xfce.

[VinzC]

Thanks sebaro.

However that doesn't work:

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XDG_CACHE_HOME=HOME/.xfce/cache
XDG_CONFIG_HOME=HOME/.xfce/config

The problem is environment scripts don't seem to parse the $HOME environment variable (or any variable at all). But if Xfce start script does reference these variables, there must be a place where to change them, am I right?

EDIT: Okay, I'm screwed!

Important: You cannot use shell variables when defining other variables. This means things like FOO="$BAR" (where $BAR is another variable) are forbidden.

What am I supposed to do now?

If I change any file that belongs to Xfce, it'll be overwritten each time I upgrade or recompile Xfce. If I (try to) use shell scripts in $HOME (not even guaranteed to work AFAICS) I need to write a new script if I change my shell. I want something that is independent of the shell. And putting these instructions in $HOME/.xinitrc won't work either as that file is processed after $XDG_xxx_HOME variables are used.

Any other idea?

[sebaro]

If I understand it right you have a multi-user system, that's why you want to use $HOME?

You could also try

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export XDG_CONFIG_HOME="${HOME}/.xfce4/config"

in
/etc/profile (system)
~/.bashrc or ~/.bash_profile (user).

[Anon-E-moose]

I recently switched from xfce to lxde and I wanted to have XDG_CONFIG_HOME and other variables set
set so I put this in my .xinitrc file

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XDG_CONFIG_HOME="$HOME/.config"
XDG_MENU_PREFIX="lxde-"
XSESSION="LXDE"
export XDG_MENU_PREFIX XSESSION XDG_CONFIG_HOME

above where I call lxsession

[VinzC]

Ah, I didn't try editing /etc/profile, that's true. Instead, I suppose any *.sh script I'll put into /etc/profile.d/ will suffice?

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...
else
	# Setup a bland default prompt.  Since this prompt should be useable
	# on color and non-color terminals, as well as shells that don't
	# understand sequences such as \h, don't put anything special in it.
	PS1="${USER:-$(type whoami >/dev/null && whoami)}@$(type uname >/dev/null && uname -n) \$ "
fi

for sh in /etc/profile.d/*.sh ; do
	[ -r "$sh" ] && . "$sh"
done
unset sh

Yes, I have a multi-user system on which I want all my user accounts to store their Xfce config and cache under ~/.xfce4/ . I must then make sure /etc/profile is run *everytime* a shell script from Xfce is run. Thanks for the tip. I'll try that and report here.

[Anon-E-moose]

The problem with either "$HOME" or "~" in /etc/env.d/* is that they are only parsed once at system startup (if I'm not mistaken)
and both those would equate to "/"

Or if /etc/profile doesn't work, look at the system xinitrc file

[VinzC]

I recently switched from xfce to lxde and I wanted to have XDG_CONFIG_HOME and other variables set
set so I put this in my .xinitrc file

As I mentioned the problem with .xinitrc is that it's called too late in the process. I might be wrong but Xfce scripts have already checked for XDG_* variables when .xinitrc is called. I don't remember exactly but I know I have looked up for various solutions and the .xinitrc comes too late.

BTW I've added a custom script to /etc/profile.d/ and now it works:

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# XFCE4: change default home directory
XFCE_BASE_DIR=~/.xfce4
[ -d ${XFCE_BASE_DIR} ] || mkdir -p ${XFCE_BASE_DIR}

export XDG_CONFIG_HOME=$XFCE_BASE_DIR/config
export XDG_CACHE_HOME=$XFCE_BASE_DIR/cache

So far, I've had to patch blueman because the latter doesn't honour XDG_CONFIG_HOME:

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--- old/blueman/plugins/config/File.py	2010-12-25 10:41:55.000000000 +0100
+++ new/blueman/plugins/config/File.py	2011-01-09 23:35:38.613000007 +0100
@@ -37,7 +37,11 @@
 
 dbus.service.Object.SUPPORTS_MULTIPLE_OBJECT_PATHS = True
 
-cfg_path = os.path.expanduser('~/.config/blueman/blueman.cfg')
+if os.environ['XDG_CONFIG_HOME']:
+	cfg_dir = '%s/blueman' % os.environ['XDG_CONFIG_HOME']
+else:
+	cfg_dir = os.path.expanduser('~/.config/blueman')
+cfg_path = '%s/blueman.cfg' % cfg_dir
 
 class Monitor(dbus.service.Object):
 	__id__ = 0
@@ -89,9 +93,9 @@
 	def on_load(self, section):
 		
 		if not File.__db__:
-			if not os.path.exists(os.path.expanduser('~/.config/blueman')):
+			if not os.path.exists(cfg_dir):
 				try:
-					os.makedirs(os.path.expanduser('~/.config/blueman'))
+					os.makedirs(cfg_dir)
 				except:
 					pass
 			try:

Will close my test session, reopen it and do further checks.

EDIT: Patch updated (File.py creates the directory if it doesn't exist).