XDG Base Directory support

This article exists to catalog the growing set of software using the XDG Base Directory Specification introduced in 2003. This is here to demonstrate the viability of this specification by listing commonly found dotfiles and their support status. For those not currently supporting the Base Directory Specification, workarounds will be demonstrated to emulate it instead.

The workarounds will be limited to anything not involving patching the source, executing code stored in environment variables or compile-time options. The rationale for this is that configurations should be portable across systems and having compile-time options prevent that.

Hopefully this will provide a source of information about exactly what certain kinds of dotfiles are and where they come from.

1 XDG Base Directory specification
- 1.1 User directories
- 1.2 System directories
2 Contributing
3 Supported
4 Partial
5 Hardcoded
6 Library and language support
7 See also

XDG Base Directory specification

Please read the full specification. This section will attempt to break down the essence of what it tries to achieve.

Only XDG_RUNTIME_DIR is set by default through pam_systemd. It is up to the user to explicitly define the other variables, using absolute paths that point to existing directories.

User directories

XDG_CONFIG_HOME
- Where user-specific configurations should be written (analogous to /etc).
- Should default to $HOME/.config.

XDG_CACHE_HOME
- Where user-specific non-essential (cached) data should be written (analogous to /var/cache).
- Should default to $HOME/.cache.

XDG_DATA_HOME
- Where user-specific data files should be written (analogous to /usr/share).
- Should default to $HOME/.local/share.

XDG_RUNTIME_DIR
- Used for non-essential, user-specific data files such as sockets, named pipes, etc.
- Not required to have a default value; warnings should be issued if not set or equivalents provided.
- Must be owned by the user with an access mode of 0700.
- Filesystem fully featured by standards of OS.
- Must be on the local filesystem.
- May be subject to periodic cleanup.
- Modified every 6 hours or set sticky bit if persistence is desired.
- Can only exist for the duration of the user's login.
- Should not store large files as it may be mounted as a tmpfs.

System directories

XDG_DATA_DIRS
- List of directories seperated by : (analogous to PATH).
- Should default to /usr/local/share:/usr/share.

XDG_CONFIG_DIRS
- List of directories seperated by : (analogous to PATH).
- Should default to /etc/xdg.

Contributing

When contributing make sure to use the correct section.

Nothing should require code evaluation (such as vim and VIMINIT), patches or compile-time options to gain support and anything which does must be deemed hardcoded. Additionally if the process is too error prone or difficult, such as Haskell's cabal or Eclipse, they should also be considered as hardcoded.

The first column should be the project name, ideally the command name if it is not ambiguous, linked to their website or an appropriate internal wiki article.

The second column is for any legacy files and directories the project had (one per line), this is done so people can find them even if they are no longer read.

In the third, try to find the commit or version a project switched to XDG Base Directory or any open discussions and include them in the next two columns (two per line).

The last column should include any appropriate workarounds or solutions. Please verify that your solution is correct and functional.

Supported

Application	Legacy Path	Supported Since	Discussion	Notes
aerc
antimicro	`~/.antimicro`	edba864	[1]
aria2	`~/.aria2`	8bc1d37	[2]
Asunder	`~/.asunder` `~/.asunder_album_artist` `~/.asunder_album_genre` `~/.asunder_album_title`	2.9.0	[3]	Uses `XDG_CONFIG_HOME/asunder/asunder` for `~/.asunder` and `XDG_CACHE_HOME/asunder/asunder_album_...` for the other 3 files. Legacy paths are not removed after migration, they have to be deleted manually.
blender	`~/.blender`	4293f473	[4]
burp		f2388e9
chromium	`~/.chromium`	23057	[5] [6]
citra	`~/.citra-emu`	f7c3193fec	[7]
composer	`~/.composer`	1.0.0-beta1	[8]
cower		8b70805
d-feet	`~/.d-feet`	7f6104b
dconf
dolphin-emu	`~/.dolphin-emu`	a498c68	[9]
dr14-meter		7e777ca64	[10]	`XDG_CONFIG_HOME/dr14tmeter/`
dunst		78b6e2b1	[11]
dwb
fish
fontconfig	`~/.fontconfig` `~/.fonts`	8c255fb1		Use `"$XDG_DATA_HOME"/fonts` to store fonts instead.
fontforge	`~/.FontForge` `~/.PfaEdit`	e4c2cc7432	[12] [13]
freerdp	`~/.freerdp`	edf6e7258d
Gajim	`~/.gajim`	3e777ea	[14]
gconf	`~/.gconf`	fc28caa7	[15]
GIMP	`~/.gimp-x.y` `~/.thumbnails`	60e0cfe 483505f	[16] [17]
git	`~/.gitconfig`	0d94427e
gstreamer	`~/.gstreamer-0.10`	4e36f93924cf	[18]
gtk3
htop	`~/.htoprc`	93233a67
i3	`~/.i3`	7c130fb54
i3status	`~/.i3status.conf`	c3f7fc4994
imagemagick
inkscape	`~/.inkscape`	0.47	[19]
latexmk	`~/.latexmkrc`
lftp	`~/.lftp`	21dc400	[20]
lgogdownloader	`~/.gogdownloader`	d430af63d000	[21]
LibreOffice		a6f56f70 25bd2eec	[22]
livestreamer	`~/.livestreamerrc`	ea805917	[23]
llpp		3ab86f0cb		Currently llpp places the configuration directly under `XDG_CONFIG_HOME` instead of creating a directory.
mc	`~/.mc`	1b9957058 0b7115647 ce401d797	[24]
Mercurial	`~/.hgrc`	354020079723 4.2		`XDG_CONFIG_HOME/hg/hgrc`.
mesa		87ab26b2ab		`XDG_CACHE_HOME/mesa`
milkytracker	`~/.milkytracker_config`	eb487c55	[25]
mintty	`~/.minttyrc`	cff1bd8f v2.3.7.	[26]
mpd	`~/.mpdconf`	87b73284
mpv	`~/.mpv`	cb250d490	[27]
mutt	`~/.mutt`	42fee7585f	[28]
mypaint	`~/.mypaint`	cf723b74cd
nano	`~/.nano/` `~/.nanorc`	036fc403	[29]
ncmpcpp	`~/.ncmpcpp`	38d9f811 27cd86e0	[30] [31]	`ncmpcpp_directory` should be set to avoid an `error.log` file in `~/.ncmpcpp`.
neovim	`~/.nvim` `~/.nvimlog` `~/.nviminfo`	1ca5646bb	[32] [33]
newsbeuter	`~/.newsbeuter`	3c57824c5	[34]	It is required to create both directories [35]: `$ mkdir -p "$XDG_DATA_HOME"/newsbeuter "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/newsbeuter`
NVIDIA	`~/.nv`
OfflineIMAP	`~/.offlineimaprc`	5150de5	[36]
opentyrian	`~/.opentyrian`	8d45ff2	[37]
pcsx2	`~/.pcsx2`	87f1e8f77 a9020c606 3b22f0fb0 0a012aec2	[38] [39]
pip	`~/.pip`	6.0	[40]
ppsspp	`~/.ppsspp`	132fe47c7d	[41]
procps-ng	`~/.toprc`	af53e170b9	[42] [43]
orbment
pacman	`~/.makepkg.conf`	80eca94c8	[44]
Panda3D	`~/.panda3d`	2b537d2
PulseAudio	`~/.pulse` `~/.pulse-cookie`	59a8618dcd9 87ae8307057 9ab510a6921 4c195bcc9d5	[45]
pyroom
qutebrowser
qtile		fd8686e 66d704b 51cff01	[46]	Some optional bar widgets can create files and directories in non-compliant paths, but most often these are still configurable.
rclone	`~/.rclone.conf`	9d362589	[47]
retroarch
rr	`~/.rr`	02e7d41e	[48]
rTorrent	`~/.rtorrent.rc`	6a8d332b
Skype	`~/.Skype`	8.0
Snes9x	`~/.snes9x`	19864677	[49]	By default configuration is blank, is intended that the user fill it at they will (throw the gui or manually) before launch a rom
sublime-text-dev^AUR				Cache is placed in `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/sublime-text-3/Cache` instead of expected `$XDG_CACHE_HOME/sublime-text-3`.
surfraw	`~/.surfraw.conf` `~/.surfraw.bookmarks`	3e4591d8 bd8c427d f57fc718
sway	`~/.sway/config`	614393c09	[50]
systemd
termite
tmuxinator	`~/.tmuxinator`	2636923	[51]
transmission	`~/.transmission`	5517	[52]
util-linux		570b32100
uzbl		c6fd63a	[53]
vimb
VirtualBox	`~/.VirtualBox`	4.3	[54]
vis	`~/.vis`	[55]	68a25c75 d138908c
VLC media player	`~/.vlcrc`	16f32e15	[56]
warsow	`~/.warsow-2.x`	98ece3f	[57]
wireshark	`~/.wireshark`	b0b53fa5
xsettingsd	`~/.xsettingsd`	4ecd7be
xmonad	`~/.xmonad`	40fc10b6	[58] [59]	Alternatively the environments `XMONAD_CONFIG_HOME`, `XMONAD_DATA_HOME`, and `XMONAD_CACHE_HOME` are also available.
xsel	`~/.xsel.log`	ee7b4811	[60]

Partial

Application	Legacy Path	Supported Since	Discussion	Notes
abook	`~/.abook`			`$ abook --config "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/abook/abookrc --datafile "$XDG_CACHE_HOME"/abook/addressbook`
Anki	`~/Anki` `~/Documents/Anki`		[61] [62]	`$ anki -b "$XDG_DATA_HOME"/Anki`
aspell	`~/.aspell.conf`			`$ export ASPELL_CONF="per-conf $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/aspell/aspell.conf; personal $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/aspell/en.pws; repl $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/aspell/en.prepl"`
Atom	`~/.atom`		[63]	`$ export ATOM_HOME="$XDG_DATA_HOME"/atom`
aws-cli	`~/.aws`	1.7.45	[64]	`$ export AWS_SHARED_CREDENTIALS_FILE="$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/aws/credentials` `$ export AWS_CONFIG_FILE="$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/aws/config`
bash-completion	`~/.bash_completion`			`$ export BASH_COMPLETION_USER_FILE="$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/bash-completion/bash_completion`
bazaar	`~/.bazaar` `~/.bzr.log`	2.3.0	[65]	Discussion in upstream bug states that bazaar wil use `~/.config/bazaar` if it exists. The logfile `~/.bzr.log` might still be written.
Ruby#Bundler	`~/.bundle`		[66] [67]	`$ export BUNDLE_USER_CONFIG="$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/bundle BUNDLE_USER_CACHE="$XDG_CACHE_HOME"/bundle BUNDLE_USER_PLUGIN="$XDG_DATA_HOME"/bundle`
cargo	`~/.cargo`		[68] [69] [70] [71]	`$ export CARGO_HOME="$XDG_DATA_HOME"/cargo`
ccache	`~/.ccache`			`$ export CCACHE_DIR="$XDG_CACHE_HOME"/ccache`
ChezScheme	`~/.chezscheme_history`			`$ petite --eehistory "$XDG_DATA_HOME"/chezscheme/history`
conky	`~/.conkyrc`	00481ee	[72]	`$ conky --config="$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/conky/conkyrc`
coreutils	`~/.dircolors`			`$ source "$(dircolors "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/dircolors)"`
crawl	`~/.crawl`			The trailing slash is required: `$ export CRAWL_DIR="$XDG_DATA_HOME"/crawl/`
CUDA	`~/.nv`			`$ export CUDA_CACHE_PATH="$XDG_CACHE_HOME"/nv`
dict	`~/.dictrc`			`$ dict -c "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/dict/dictrc`
ELinks	`~/.elinks`			`$ export ELINKS_CONFDIR="$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/elinks`
emscripten	`~/.emscripten` `~/.emscripten_sanity` `~/.emscripten_ports` `~/.emscripten_cache__last_clear`		[73]	`$ export EM_CONFIG="$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/emscripten/config` `$ export EM_CACHE="$XDG_CACHE_HOME"/emscripten/cache` `$ export EM_PORTS="$XDG_DATA_HOME"/emscripten/cache` `$ emcc --em-config "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/emscripten/config --em-cache "$XDG_CACHE_HOME"/emscripten/cache`
freecad	`~/.FreeCAD`		[74]	`$ freecad -u "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/FreeCAD/user.cfg -s "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/FreeCAD/system.cfg`
gdb	`~/.gdbinit`			`$ gdb -nh -x "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/gdb/init`
get_iplayer	`~/.get_iplayer`			`$ export GETIPLAYERUSERPREFS="$XDG_DATA_HOME"/get_iplayer`
getmail	`~/.getmail/getmailrc`			`$ getmail --rcfile="$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/getmail/getmailrc" --getmaildir="$XDG_DATA_HOME/getmail"`
gliv	`~/.glivrc`			`$ gliv --glivrc="$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/gliv/glivrc`
GnuPG	`~/.gnupg`		[75] [76]	`$ export GNUPGHOME="$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/gnupg` `$ gpg2 --homedir "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/gnupg`
Google Earth	`~/.googleearth`			Some paths can be changed with the `KMLPath` and `CachePath` options in `~/.config/Google/GoogleEarthPlus.conf`
GQ LDAP client	`~/.gq` `~/.gq-state`	1.51		`$ export GQRC="$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/gqrc` `$ export GQSTATE="$XDG_DATA_HOME"/gq/gq-state` `$ mkdir -p "$(dirname "$GQSTATE")"`
gradle	`~/.gradle`		[77]	`$ export GRADLE_USER_HOME="$XDG_DATA_HOME"/gradle`
gtk	`~/.gtkrc`			`$ export GTK_RC_FILES="$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/gtk-1.0/gtkrc`
gtk2	`~/.gtkrc-2.0`			`$ export GTK2_RC_FILES="$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/gtk-2.0/gtkrc`
httpie	`~/.httpie`		[78]	`$ export HTTPIE_CONFIG_DIR="$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/httpie`
ipython/jupyter	`~/.ipython`			`$ export IPYTHONDIR="$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/jupyter` `$ export JUPYTER_CONFIG_DIR="$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/jupyter`
irssi	`~/.irssi`		[79]	`$ irssi --config="$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/irssi/config --home="$XDG_DATA_HOME"/irssi`
isync	`~/.mbsyncrc`			`$ mbsync -c "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/isync/mbsyncrc`
Java (OpenJDK)	`~/.java/.userPrefs`			`$ export _JAVA_OPTIONS=-Djava.util.prefs.userRoot="$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/java`
less	`~/.lesshst`			`$ mkdir -p "$XDG_CACHE_HOME"/less` `$ export LESSHISTFILE="$XDG_CACHE_HOME"/less/history` `$ export LESSHISTFILE=-` can be used to disable this feature. `$ export LESSKEY="$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/less/lesskey`
libdvdcss	`~/.dvdcss`		[80]	`$ export DVDCSS_CACHE="$XDG_DATA_HOME"/dvdcss`
libice	`~/.ICEauthority`		[81]	`$ export ICEAUTHORITY="$XDG_CACHE_HOME"/ICEauthority` Make sure `XDG_CACHE_HOME` is set beforehand to directory user running Xorg has write access to. Do not use `XDG_RUNTIME_DIR` as it is available after login. Display managers that launch Xorg (like GDM) will repeatedly fail otherwise.
libx11	`~/.XCompose` `~/.compose-cache`			`$ export XCOMPOSEFILE="$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/X11/xcompose` `$ export XCOMPOSECACHE="$XDG_CACHE_HOME"/X11/xcompose`
ltrace	`~/.ltrace.conf`			`$ ltrace -F "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/ltrace/ltrace.conf`
maven	`~/.m2`			`$ mvn -gs "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/maven/settings.xml` settings.xml <settings xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/SETTINGS/1.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/SETTINGS/1.0.0 https://maven.apache.org/xsd/settings-1.0.0.xsd"> ... <localRepository>${env.XDG_CACHE_HOME}/maven/repository</localRepository> ... </settings>
Mathematica	`~/.Mathematica`			`$ export MATHEMATICA_USERBASE="$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/mathematica`
mednafen	`~/.mednafen`			`$ export MEDNAFEN_HOME="$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/mednafen`
moc	`~/.moc`			`$ mocp -M "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/moc` `$ mocp -O MOCDir="$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/moc`
most	`~/.mostrc`			`$ export MOST_INITFILE="$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/mostrc`
MPlayer	`~/.mplayer`			`$ export MPLAYER_HOME="$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/mplayer`
msmtp	`~/.msmtprc`			`$ msmtp -C "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/msmtp/msmtprc`
MySQL	`~/.mysql_history`			`$ export MYSQL_HISTFILE="$XDG_DATA_HOME"/mysql_history`
ncurses	`~/.terminfo`			Precludes system path searching: `$ export TERMINFO="$XDG_DATA_HOME"/terminfo` `$ export TERMINFO_DIRS="$XDG_DATA_HOME"/terminfo:/usr/share/terminfo`
ncmpc	`~/.ncmpc`			`ncmpc -f "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/ncmpc/config`
Netbeans	`~/.netbeans`		[82]	`$ netbeans --userdir "${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}"/netbeans`
Node.js	`~/.node_repl_history`			`$ export NODE_REPL_HISTORY="$XDG_DATA_HOME"/node_repl_history` [83]
notmuch	`~/.notmuch-config`		[84]	`$ export NOTMUCH_CONFIG="$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/notmuch/notmuchrc` `$ export NMBGIT="$XDG_DATA_HOME"/notmuch/nmbug`
npm	`~/.npm` `~/.npmrc`		[85]	`$ export NPM_CONFIG_USERCONFIG=$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/npm/npmrc` npmrc prefix=${XDG_DATA_HOME}/npm cache=${XDG_CACHE_HOME}/npm tmp=${XDG_RUNTIME_DIR}/npm init-module=${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/npm/config/npm-init.js `prefix` is unnecessary (and unsupported) if Node.js is installed by nvm^AUR.
nvidia-settings	`~/.nvidia-settings-rc`			`$ nvidia-settings --config="$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/nvidia/settings`
nvm^AUR	`~/.nvm`			`$ export NVM_DIR="$XDG_DATA_HOME"/nvm`
Octave	`~/octave` `~/.octave_packages` `~/.octave_hist`			`$ export OCTAVE_HISTFILE="$XDG_CACHE_HOME/octave-hsts"` `$ export OCTAVE_SITE_INITFILE="$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/octave/octaverc"` $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/octave/octaverc source /usr/share/octave/site/m/startup/octaverc; pkg prefix ~/.local/share/octave/packages ~/.local/share/octave/packages; pkg local_list /home/<your username>/.local/share/octave/octave_packages; The `local_list` option must be given an absolute path.
openscad	`~/.OpenSCAD`	7c3077b0f	[86]	Does not fully honour XDG Base Directory Specification, see [87] Currently it hard-codes `~/.local/share`.
OpenSSL	`~/.rnd`			Seeding file .rnd's location can be set with RANDFILE environment variable per FAQ.
GNU parallel	`~/.parallel`	20170422		`$ export PARALLEL_HOME="$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/parallel`
Pass	`~/.password-store`			`$ export PASSWORD_STORE_DIR="$XDG_DATA_HOME"/pass`
Pidgin	`~/.purple`		[88]	`$ pidgin --config="$XDG_DATA_HOME"/purple`
postgresql	`~/.psqlrc` `~/.psql_history` `~/.pgpass` `~/.pg_service.conf`	9.2	[89] [90]	`$ export PSQLRC="$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/pg/psqlrc"` `$ export PSQL_HISTORY="$XDG_CACHE_HOME/pg/psql_history"` `$ export PGPASSFILE="$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/pg/pgpass"` `$ export PGSERVICEFILE="$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/pg/pg_service.conf"` It is required to create both directories `$ mkdir "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/pg" && mkdir "$XDG_CACHE_HOME/pg"`
PulseAudio	`~/.esd_auth`			Very likely generated by the `module-esound-protocol-unix.so` module. It can be configured to use a different location but it makes much more sense to just comment out this module in `/etc/pulse/default.pa` or `"$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/pulse/default.pa`.
pylint	`~/.pylint.d`		[91]^won't	`$ export PYLINTHOME="$XDG_CACHE_HOME"/pylint`
python-setuptools	`~/.python-eggs`			`$ export PYTHON_EGG_CACHE="$XDG_CACHE_HOME"/python-eggs`
readline	`~/.inputrc`			`$ export INPUTRC="$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/readline/inputrc`
rlwrap	`~/.*_history`		[92]	`$ export RLWRAP_HOME="$XDG_DATA_HOME"/rlwrap`
RubyGems	`~/.gem`			`$ export GEM_HOME="$XDG_DATA_HOME"/gem` `$ export GEM_SPEC_CACHE="$XDG_CACHE_HOME"/gem`
rustup	`~/.rustup`		[93]	`$ export RUSTUP_HOME="$XDG_DATA_HOME"/rustup`
sbt	`~/.sbt` `~/.ivy2`		[94]	`$ sbt -ivy "$XDG_DATA_HOME"/ivy2 -sbt-dir "$XDG_DATA_HOME"/sbt` (beware [95])
screen	`~/.screenrc`			`$ export SCREENRC="$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/screen/screenrc`
stack	`~/.stack`		[96]	`$ export STACK_ROOT="$XDG_DATA_HOME"/stack`
subversion	`~/.subversion`		[97] [98][99]	`$ svn --config-dir "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/subversion`
task	`~/.task` `~/.taskrc`			`$ export TASKDATA="$XDG_DATA_HOME"/task` `$ export TASKRC="$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/task/taskrc`
tig	`~/.tigrc`			`$ export TIGRC_USER="$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/tig/tigrc`
tiptop	`~/.tiptoprc`			This will still expect the `.tiptoprc` file. `$ tiptop -W "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/tiptop`
tmux	`~/.tmux.conf`		[100]^{[dead link 2017-12-29]} [101]^{[dead link 2017-12-29]}	`$ tmux -f "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/tmux/tmux.conf` `$ export TMUX_TMPDIR="$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR"`
uncrustify	`~/.uncrustify.cfg`			`$ export UNCRUSTIFY_CONFIG="$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/uncrustify/uncrustify.cfg`
Unison	`~/.unison`			`$ export UNISON="$XDG_DATA_HOME"/unison`
urxvtd	`~/.urxvt/urxvtd-hostname`			`$ export RXVT_SOCKET="$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR"/urxvtd`
Vagrant	`~/.vagrant.d` `~/.vagrant.d/aliases`		[102]	`$ export VAGRANT_HOME="$XDG_DATA_HOME"/vagrant` `$ export VAGRANT_ALIAS_FILE="$XDG_DATA_HOME"/vagrant/aliases`
WeeChat	`~/.weechat`		[103]	`$ export WEECHAT_HOME="$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/weechat` `$ weechat -d "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/weechat`
wget	`~/.wgetrc` `~/.wget-hsts`			`$ export WGETRC="$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/wgetrc"` `$ wget --hsts-file="$XDG_CACHE_HOME/wget-hsts"`
wine	`~/.wine`		[104]	Winetricks uses XDG-alike location below for WINEPREFIX management: `$ mkdir -p "$XDG_DATA_HOME"/wineprefixes` `$ export WINEPREFIX="$XDG_DATA_HOME"/wineprefixes/default`
xorg-xauth	`~/.Xauthority`			`$ export XAUTHORITY="$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR"/Xauthority`
xinit	`~/.xinitrc` `~/.xserverrc`			`$ export XINITRC="$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/X11/xinitrc` `$ export XSERVERRC="$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/X11/xserverrc` Note that these variables are respected by xinit, but not by startx. Instead, specify the filename as an argument: `$ startx "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/X11/xinitrc" -- vt1`
xorg-xrdb	`~/.Xresources` `~/.Xdefaults`			Ultimately you should be using `Xresources` and since these resources are loaded via `xrdb` you can specify a path such as `$ xrdb -load ~/.config/X11/xresources`.

Hardcoded

Application	Legacy Path	Discussion	Notes
adb	`~/.android/`	[105]	`$ export ANDROID_SDK_HOME="$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/android`
AMule	`~/.aMule`
Android Studio	`~/.AndroidStudio2.3` `~/.android/` `~/.java/`
anthy	`~/.anthy`	[106]
Apache Directory Studio	`~/.ApacheDirectoryStudio`
Arduino	`~/.arduino15` `~/.jssc`	[107]^won't
ARandR	`~/.screenlayout`
Audacity	`~/.audacity-data/`
Avidemux	`~/.avidemux6`
bash	`~/.bashrc` `~/.bash_history` `~/.bash_profile` `~/.bash_login` `~/.bash_logout`	[108]^won't	`$ export HISTFILE="$XDG_DATA_HOME"/bash/history` A specified `bashrc` can be sourced from `/etc/bashrc`. Specify `--init-file <file>` as an alternative to `~/.bashrc` for interactive shells.
cabal	`~/.cabal/`	[109]	See discussion for potential workarounds. It is not very easy or straightforward but may be possible to emulate Base Directory compliance.
calibre	`~/Calibre Library/`
CUPS	`~/.cups/`	[110]^won't
darcs	`~/.darcs/`	[111]
dbus	`~/.dbus/`	[112]	This should be avoidable with kdbus [citation needed].
Dia	`~/.dia/`
docker	`~/.docker`	[113] [114]
eclipse	`~/.eclipse/`	[115]	Option `-Dosgi.configuration.area=@user.home/.config/..` overrides but must be added to `"$ECLIPSE_HOME"/eclipse.ini"` rather than command line which means you must have write access to `$ECLIPSE_HOME`. (Arch Linux hard-codes `$ECLIPSE_HOME` in `/usr/bin/eclipse`)
emacs	`~/.emacs` `~/.emacs.d/`	[116]	It's possible to set `HOME`, but it has unexpected side effects. So far the most promising approach is modifying another Emacs environment variable to alter the load path and author your own site file which can manually load up your init file, but it changes the load process significantly.
Fetchmail	`~/.fetchmailrc`
Firefox	`~/.mozilla/`	[117]
Flatpak	`~/.var/`	[118] [119] [120]
GHC	`~/.ghc`	[121]
gtk-recordMyDesktop	`~/.gtk-recordmydesktop`
idris	`~/.idris`	[122]
Java (OpenJDK)	`~/.java/fonts`, `~/.java/webview`^JavaFX	[123]^RedHat
julia	`~/.juliarc.jl` `~/.julia_history`	[124] [125]
Linux PAM	`~/.pam_environment`	[126]	Hardcoded in modules/pam_env/pam_env.c
lldb	`~/.lldb` `~/.lldbinit`
mathomatic	`~/.mathomaticrc` `~/.matho_history`		History can be moved by using `rlwrap mathomatic -r` with the `RLWRAP_HOME` environment set appropriately.
milkytracker	`~/.milkytracker_config`	[127]
Minecraft	`~/.minecraft/`	[128]
mongodb	`~/.mongorc.js` `~/.dbshell`	[129]	This Stack Overflow thread suggests a partial workaround using command-line switch `--norc`.
	`~/.netrc`		Like `~/.ssh`, many programs expect this file to be here. These include projects like curl (`CURLOPT_NETRC_FILE`), ftp (`NETRC`), s-nail (`NETRC`), etc. While some of them offer alternative configurable locations, many do not such as w3m, wget and lftp.
node-gyp	`~/.node-gyp`	[130] [131] [132]	Discussion seems as though partial support may soon be added.
NSS	`~/.pki`	[133]
OpenSSH	`~/.ssh`	[134]	Assumed to be present by many ssh daemons and clients such as DropBear and OpenSSH.
palemoon	`~/.moonchild productions`	[135]
perf	`~/.debug`		Hardcoded in tools/perf/util/config.c:29.
various shells and display managers	`~/.profile`
python	`~/.python_history`		All history from interactive sessions is saved to `~/.python_history` by default since version 3.4, custom path can still be set the same way as in older versions (see this example).
Qt Designer	`~/.designer`
Quod Libet	`~/.quodlibet`	[136]
racket	`~/.racketrc`
RedNotebook	`~/.rednotebook`
Remarkable	`~/.remarkable`
Ren'Py	`~/.renpy`	[137]
SANE	`~/.sane/`		`scanimage` creates a `.cal` file there
Scribus	`~/.scribus`
SeaMonkey	`~/.mozilla/`	[138]
Solfege	`~/.solfege` `~/.solfegerc` `~/lessonfiles`	[139]
SpamAssassin	`~/.spamassassin`
spectrwm	`~/.spectrwm`
SQLite	`~/.sqlite_history` `~/.sqliterc`	[140][141]	`$ sqlite3 -init "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/sqlite3/sqliterc`
Steam	`~/.steam` `~/.steampath` `~/.steampid`	[142]	Many game engines (Unity 3D, Unreal) follow the specification, but then individual game publishers hardcode the paths in Steam Auto-Cloud causing game-saves to sync to the wrong directory.
TeamSpeak	`~/.ts3client`
TeXmacs	`~/.TeXmacs`
Thunderbird	`~/.thunderbird/`	[143]
tllocalmgr	`~/.texlive`
vim	`~/.vim` `~/.vimrc` `~/.viminfo`		Since 7.3.1178 vim will search for `~/.vim/vimrc` if `~/.vimrc` is not found. `$ mkdir -p "$XDG_CACHE_HOME"/vim/{undo,swap,backup}` "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/vim/vimrc set undodir=$XDG_CACHE_HOME/vim/undo set directory=$XDG_CACHE_HOME/vim/swap set backupdir=$XDG_CACHE_HOME/vim/backup set viminfo+='1000,n$XDG_CACHE_HOME/vim/viminfo set runtimepath=$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/vim,$VIMRUNTIME,$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/vim/after ~/.profile export VIMINIT=":source $XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/vim/vimrc https://tlvince.com/vim-respect-xdg
vimperator	`~/.vimperatorrc`	[144]	`$ export VIMPERATOR_INIT=":source $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/vimperator/vimperatorrc"` `$ export VIMPERATOR_RUNTIME="$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/vimperator`
w3m	`~/.w3m`	[145]
wpa_cli	`~/.wpa_cli_history`
xdg-utils	`~/.gnome`	[146]	For some reason the script `xdg-desktop-menu` hard-codes `gnome_user_dir="$HOME/.gnome/apps"`. This is used by chromium amoung others.
xombrero	`~/.xombrero`	[147]
yarn	`~/.yarnrc` `~/.yarn/` `~/.yarncache/` `~/.yarn-config/`	[148]
zenmap nmap	`~/.zenmap`	[149] [150]
zsh	`~/.zshrc` `~/.zprofile` `~/.zshenv` `~/.zlogin` `~/.zlogout` `~/.histfile`	[151]	Consider exporting `ZDOTDIR=$HOME/.config/zsh` in `~/.zshenv` (this is hardcoded due to the bootstrap problem). You could also add this to `/etc/zsh/zshenv` and avoid the need for any dotfiles in your `HOME`. Doing this however requires root privilege which may not be viable and is system-wide. `$ export HISTFILE="$XDG_DATA_HOME"/zsh/history`

Library and language support

C: C99: Cloudef's simple implementation.

JVM: Java, Kotlin, Clojure, Scala, ...; directories-jvm

Haskell: Officially in directory since 1.2.3.0 ab9d0810ce.; xdg-basedir

Perl: File-BaseDir; perl-file-xdg

Ruby: rubyworks/xdg

Rust: directories-rs

Python: pyxdg

Vala: Builtin support via GLib.Environment.; See get_user_cache_dir, get_user_data_dir, get_user_config_dir, etc.

XDG Base Directory support

Contents

XDG Base Directory specification

User directories

System directories

Contributing

Supported

Partial

Hardcoded

Library and language support

See also

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