BaseDirs

This package exists to help you put and look for files in the appropriate place(s).

It is essentially an implementation of the XDG (Cross-Desktop Group) directory specifications, with analogues for Windows and MacOS for cross-platform. More specifically, this is a hybrid of:

• The XDG base directory and the XDG user directory specifications on Linux
• The Known Folder API on Windows
• The Standard Directories guidelines on macOS

Why should I care?

It may be easy to treat file paths haphazardly, but for the user in particular abiding by the standards/conventions of the their platform has a number of major benefits, such as:

• Improved ease of backups, since it is easier to make rules for which folders need to be backed up.
• Improved configuration portability, since it is easier to identify and share the relevant configuration files.
• Ease of isolating application state, by containing state to a single directory it is easy to avoid sharing it.
• Decreased reliance on hard-coded paths, improving flexibility and composability.

It is worth noting that these considerations apply to both graphical and command-line desktop applications.

Choosing the appropriate base directory