Support FreeDesktop.org XDG basedir specification

[Eric Heintzmann]

Please support FreeDesktop.org XDG basedir specification for stellarium

http://ploum.net/post/207-modify-your-application-to-use-xdg-folders
https://live.gnome.org/GnomeGoals/XDGConfigFolders
http://standards.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/latest/

[Alexander Wolf (alexwolf)]

I committed support of .config/stellarium folder but IMHO this is very stupid standard.

Diff: http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~stellarium/stellarium/trunk/revision/5714

[Bogdan Marinov (daggerstab)]

Alex, by know you should have learned that as a developer, you are supposed to show some discernment and judgment about changes to the code, not just blindly and hastily implement whatever is proposed by the latest bug report/feature request. I'm especially disturbed by the fact that you changed Stellarium's base directory structure - a rather significant change - without discussing it with other developers.

Bug status is changed to "Opinion" pending developer discussion. I'll revert Alex' incomplete implementation.

[Eric Heintzmann (heintzmann-eric)]

Sorry

Alexander, I've looked at your patch. You should not harcode .config path in your code.
Instead you should read $XDG_CONFIG_HOME environment variable, and use it if defined and not empty.
If $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is not defined or it is empty, then you can default to $HOME/.config.

For CMAKE, the code should looks like to:

IF $ENV{XDG_CONFIG_HOME} is defined
    IF $ENV{XDG_CONFIG_HOME} is not empty
        SET(CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX $ENV{XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/stellarium)
    ELSE
        SET(CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX $ENV{HOME}/.config/stellarium)
    ENDIF
 ELSE
    SET(CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX $ENV{HOME}/.config/stellarium)
ENDIF

[Eric Heintzmann (heintzmann-eric)]

According to XDG Base directory specification:
User data should go into $XDG_DATA_HOME (which default to ~/.local/share),
user preferences should go into $XDG_CONFIG_HOME (which default to ~/.config)
and cached data should go to $XDG_CACHE_HOME (which default to ~/.cache).
More details at :
http://ploum.net/post/207-modify-your-application-to-use-xdg-folders
https://live.gnome.org/GnomeGoals/XDGConfigFolders

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

The Freedesktop.org XDG base directory specification have good de facto adoption.
It has been adopted by:
- GNOME ( https://live.gnome.org/GnomeGoals/XDGConfigFolders )
- GTK+ ( https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=646631 )
- KDE ( http://techbase.kde.org/KDE_System_Administration/XDG_Filesystem_Hierarchy#Freedesktop.org_and_Standard_Directories )
- QT ( http://harmattan-dev.nokia.com/docs/library/html/qt4/qsettings.html#setPath )
- XFCE ( http://docs.xfce.org/xfce/xfce4-session/advanced in Files and Environment Variables )
- LXDE
- Razor-qt
- VLC ( https://trac.videolan.org/vlc/ticket/1267 )
- GStreamer ( https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=518597 )
- Chrome ( http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=16976 )
- many more upstream applications
- Ubuntu ( http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/6557/ & http://packages.ubuntu.com/fr/source/precise/libxdg-basedir )
- Debian ( http://packages.debian.org/squeeze/libxdg-basedir1 )
- Red Hat
- Fedora
- Suse
- many more distributions

I think that Stellarium should use same locations than the vast majority of Desktop environment and applications.

There are real advantages of following this specification :
- a lot less cluttered $HOME
- Make backups a lot more safer and easier.
  Backuping your $XDG_DATA_HOME along with your files is enough
  (or just excluding $XDG_CACHE_HOME)
- A lot easier to reset a default configuration if you want/need it (and
  without any risk to loose informations). Even for the software itself
  could choose to reset $XDG_CONFIG_HOME if needed.
- Avoid some strange bugs that happens because you had a old version of
  some configuration file
- A lot more of flexibility and portability because no path are hardcoded.

[Alexander Wolf (alexwolf)]

IMHO this specification is fully bullshit.

You are write about "real advantages":
- a lot less cluttered $HOME -- yes, "of course"; new specifications make more mess in users data files.
- Make backups a lot more safer and easier. -- I agree
- A lot easier to reset a default configuration if you want/need it (and without any risk to loose informations). Even for the software itself could choose to reset $XDG_CONFIG_HOME if needed. -- I disagree, because for stellarium need use three different directories for storing users data instead one directory. Is this a "lot easier"?
- Avoid some strange bugs that happens because you had a old version of some configuration file -- And? I don't see how to new specification can be protect from "strange bugs".
- A lot more of flexibility and portability because no path are hardcoded. -- What? Do you mean using $HOME variable are more "hardcoded" tnan $XDG_* variables?

[Eric Heintzmann (heintzmann-eric)]

> - Make backups a lot more safer and easier. -- I agree
I think backup are the main reason to use XDG basedir spec.

>- A lot easier to reset a default configuration if you want/need it (and without any risk to loose informations). Even for the >software itself could choose to reset $XDG_CONFIG_HOME if needed. -- I disagree, because for stellarium need use three >different directories for storing users data instead one directory. Is this a "lot easier"?
Configuration file should be written in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME /stellarium. Thus you can reset your preferences just by deleting this dir without data loss (because you user data are saved in $XDG_DATA_HOME).

[Alexander Wolf (alexwolf)]

Hmm... Do you really mean that removing $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/stellarium/stellarium/config.ini more easily than removing $HOME/.stellarium/config.ini ? Do you really mean that using $XDG_DATA_DIRS/shares/stellarium/stellarium/stars/default/stars_4_1v0_0.cat more easily than use $HOME/.stellarium/stars/default/stars_4_1v0_0.cat ? We have also have logger for Stellarium running - Where should be log from Stellarium in XDG specification? Yes, XDG don't known about logs. Maybe we should use /var/log/stellarium.log or /var/log/stellarium/log.txt with superuser's access instead $HOME/.stellarium/log.txt?

[Eric Heintzmann (heintzmann-eric)]

I mean that it is more simple to remove $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/subdirFOR ALL APPS than guessing what files to remove.
I mean than using $XDG_DATA_DIRS/ FOR ALL APPS is more easily than hunting files in $HOME.

For logs you should use syslog/systemd instead.

[Alexander Wolf (alexwolf)]

Hmm... Very good way for solve problem in one application - just kill settings for ALL applications. I think better way will be run rm -rf / for solve all problems.

We will never support systemd because systemd is linux-only bullshit which written Lennart Poettering.

[Eric Heintzmann (heintzmann-eric)]

>Very good way for solve problem in one application - just kill settings for ALL applications.
You can just reset preferences for ONE application, just by removing ONE subdir (and without data loss, I repeat).
You don't have to guess what file to remove, just knowing the app name which is the subdir name.

>We will never support systemd because systemd is linux-only bullshit which written Lennart Poettering.
In this case, you can use syslog.

[Alexander Wolf (alexwolf)]

The bug report was moved to https://github.com/Stellarium/stellarium/issues/461