xdg-basedir

What is xdg-basedir?

The xdg-basedir package is a Node.js module that provides access to the XDG Base Directory Specification paths. It allows developers to easily find standard directories like configuration, data, and cache directories according to the XDG standards, which are commonly used in various Linux distributions.

What are xdg-basedir's main functionalities?

Access to XDG Config Directory

This feature allows developers to retrieve the path to the user's XDG config directory, which is used to store configuration files.

const xdgBasedir = require('xdg-basedir');
console.log(xdgBasedir.config);

Access to XDG Data Directory

This feature provides the path to the XDG data directory, where applications can store data files.

const xdgBasedir = require('xdg-basedir');
console.log(xdgBasedir.data);

Access to XDG Cache Directory

This feature retrieves the path to the XDG cache directory, which is intended for non-essential data files.

const xdgBasedir = require('xdg-basedir');
console.log(xdgBasedir.cache);

Other packages similar to xdg-basedir

env-paths

Similar to xdg-basedir, env-paths computes paths for storing things like data, config, cache, etc. It works across different platforms (Windows, macOS, Linux), providing a broader scope compared to xdg-basedir which primarily targets XDG standards on Unix-like systems.

appdirs

appdirs is another package that provides similar functionality to xdg-basedir, offering a simple interface to find appropriate platform-specific dirs (like those for data or config). It is also cross-platform and provides more comprehensive support for different operating systems compared to xdg-basedir.

README

xdg-basedir

Get XDG Base Directory paths

This package is meant for Linux. You should not use XDG on macOS or Windows. Instead, you should follow their platform conventions. You can use env-paths for that.

Install

$ npm install xdg-basedir

Usage

import {xdgData, xdgConfig, xdgDataDirectories} from 'xdg-basedir';

console.log(xdgData);
//=> '/home/sindresorhus/.local/share'

console.log(xdgConfig);
//=> '/home/sindresorhus/.config'

console.log(xdgDataDirectories);
//=> ['/home/sindresorhus/.local/share', '/usr/local/share/', '/usr/share/']

API

The exports xdgData, xdgConfig, xdgCache, xdgRuntime will return undefined in the uncommon case that both the XDG environment variable is not set and the users home directory can't be found. You need to handle this case. A common solution is to fall back to a temporary directory.

xdgData

Directory for user-specific data files.

xdgConfig

Directory for user-specific configuration files.

xdgCache

Directory for user-specific non-essential data files.

xdgRuntime

Directory for user-specific non-essential runtime files and other file objects (such as sockets, named pipes, etc).

xdgDataDirectories

Preference-ordered array of base directories to search for data files in addition to xdgData.

xdgConfigDirectories

Preference-ordered array of base directories to search for configuration files in addition to xdgConfig.

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