~/  codechu-xdg
   ├── .config/    <vendor>/<product>/   settings live here
   ├── .cache/     <vendor>/<product>/   throwaway, regenerable
   ├── .local/share/  <vendor>/<product>/   user data, keep it
   ├── .local/state/  <vendor>/<product>/   logs, history
   └── $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/<vendor>/<product>/  sockets, pids

Vendor-namespaced XDG Base Directory paths — five dirs, one rule.

codechu-xdg

Vendor-namespaced XDG Base Directory paths for Linux desktop apps. Tiny — ~80 LOC, stdlib-only, no dependencies.

pip install codechu-xdg

What it gives you

• 5 standard XDG path types: config, cache, data, state, runtime
• Mandatory vendor + product namespace — every path is $XDG_BASE/<vendor>/<product>/, so multiple products from the same publisher live under one directory (one ~/.config/<vendor>/ reveals all your products)
• ensure() — mkdir -p for all 5 dirs
• migrate() — idempotent legacy → new path mover (run once at startup to upgrade users from earlier layouts)

Quick examples

Basic

from codechu_xdg import App

app = App(vendor="codechu", product="disk-cleaner")
app.ensure()  # create all 5 dirs

# Paths
settings  = app.config_dir  / "settings.json"
db_cache  = app.cache_dir   / "du_cache.db"
snapshots = app.data_dir    / "snapshots.db"
log_file  = app.state_dir   / "app.log"
pid_file  = app.runtime_dir / "watchdog.pid"
sock_file = app.runtime_dir / "control.sock"

Convenience helpers

For common file types, helpers eliminate dir / "name" boilerplate:

app.settings_file()                # config_dir / settings.json (default name)
app.settings_file("themes.json")   # config_dir / themes.json
app.cache_file("du_cache.db")
app.data_file("snapshots.db")
app.log_file()                     # state_dir / app.log
app.runtime_file("watchdog.pid")

Cleanup at shutdown / on demand

# Wipe stale sockets and pid files — recreated on next run.
app.remove_runtime()

# Or full cache wipe (regeneratable). Returns count of removed entries.
n = app.remove_cache()
print(f"cleared {n} cache entries")

Migration from earlier layouts

When you change directory conventions across versions, migrate() moves files idempotently — runs safely on every startup:

from pathlib import Path

moved = app.migrate({
    # v0.0 layout: everything under ~/.config/<product>/
    Path.home() / ".config" / "disk_cleaner" / "settings.json":
        app.config_dir / "settings.json",
    Path.home() / ".config" / "disk_cleaner" / "du_cache.db":
        app.cache_dir / "du_cache.db",
    Path.home() / ".config" / "disk_cleaner" / "snapshots.db":
        app.data_dir / "snapshots.db",
})
print(f"migrated {moved} files")

Files at the new path are never overwritten — if new exists, the old is left in place. This makes it safe to run on every startup.

Why a vendor namespace

Single-vendor apps put files at ~/.config/<product>/ — fine for one product. Multi-product publishers benefit from grouping:

~/.config/codechu/
├── disk-cleaner/
├── file-explorer/
└── system-monitor/

One directory, full inventory. Pattern used by JetBrains (~/.config/JetBrains/) and Mozilla (~/.mozilla/).

Path resolution

Standard XDG environment variables:

Resolved per-call from the env mapping you pass to App (or to the base accessors). No ambient reads, no import-time snapshots — tests pass a plain dict and get full isolation. See docs/MIGRATION.md if you are upgrading from v0.1.

Documentation

• docs/API.md — full API reference
• docs/MIGRATION.md — v0.1 → v0.2 upgrade guide
• docs/RECIPES.md — common patterns (testing, legacy migration, multi-user runtime dirs, vendor-namespacing rationale)

Validation

• vendor and product must be non-empty and not contain /.
• All directories use safe mkdir -p semantics — no race-on-create.

Multi-platform?

This library is Linux-only (XDG is a Linux/Unix spec). For macOS or Windows in addition to Linux, see platformdirs on PyPI — note that it does not enforce a vendor namespace on Linux.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.

Part of Codechu.