Vim should follow XDG Base Directory Specifications to store its config files

[Sandeep]

Binary package hint: vim

There is a huge need to have a separation between user-data and
user-preferences. For example, when I back up my configuration files - I should be targetting .vimrc and .vim config files, but not my .viminfo files.

This will also have the added advantage of a less cluttered home directory.

References:
http://live.gnome.org/GnomeGoals/XDGConfigFolders

http://ploum.frimouvy.org/?207-modify-your-application-to-use-xdg-folders

[Will Gray (graywh)]

But Vim isn't a Gnome application. And it doesn't make sense for Vim's configuration to be different for Ubuntu users.

[smyrman (smyrman)]

Lots of DEs and applications follow the freedesktop.org spec of the XDG config scheme.

@Sandeep: If you just want vim working with this standard. do this: http://tlvince.com/vim-respect-xdg

@Vim devs: For a more permanent solution I don't believe it should be too hard to make Vim support both the freedesktop.org scheme and the old way of doing things. It should be easy enough just to check for XDG_CONFIG_HOME at startup and if it doesn't exist, fall back to using .vimrc and friends. Adding a compiler option for only optionally supporting this scheme is possible, but I wouldn't recommend it!

The most obvious benefit of supporting the XDG config spec is that it allows for quite easy synchronizing of config files between different computers for several apps - one only has too copy the .config folder! One can also put this .config folder under revision control, like I have.

[smyrman (smyrman)]

I ment to say: check for XDG_CONFIG_HOME/vim/vimrc