pidgin does not adhere to the Freedesktop XDG Base Directory Specification

[Tim Kersten]

Binary package hint: pidgin

The specification can be found at: http://standards.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/latest/index.html

From the specification:

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There is a single base directory relative to which user-specific data files should be written. This directory is defined by the environment variable $XDG_DATA_HOME.

There is a single base directory relative to which user-specific configuration files should be written. This directory is defined by the environment variable $XDG_CONFIG_HOME.

$XDG_DATA_HOME defines the base directory relative to which user specific data files should be stored. If $XDG_DATA_HOME is either not set or empty, a default equal to $HOME/.local/share should be used.

$XDG_CONFIG_HOME defines the base directory relative to which user specific configuration files should be stored. If $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is either not set or empty, a default equal to $HOME/.config should be used.
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The reasoning behind this is so that it's easy to remove config files while not affecting any user data. This is especially important when a user upgrades their OS, i.e. Ubuntu 7.10 -> Ubuntu 8.04, and wants to start with the default settings for their applications. It will also help organise the ever so horrid mess in the home folder.

A simple rule might be:
Data for which there exists sane defaults, is config data. Data which should not be lost is user data.

i.e. settings such as whether or not the user wants tabs to be used in their IM windows are "CONFIG" values, where as usernames, passwords, and more importantly chat history are user "DATA".

[Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)]

Daniel - I notice this bug has already been reported upstream (just added the upstream link), and has been declined by the Pidgin developers.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

upstream disagree on the change