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A small Python module for determining appropriate platform-specific dirs, e.g. a "user data dir".

Project description


============
xdgappdirs
============

This is a fork and drop-in replacement of `appdirs
<https://pypi.org/project/appdirs/>`_ that follows the XDG BaseDir Spec on macOS
when the relevant ``XDG_*`` environment variables are available. For instance,
on macOS, when ``XDG_CONFIG_HOME`` is set to ``/Users/steve/.config``,
``user_config_dir('foo')`` evaluates to ``/Users/steve/.config/foo``, whereas
when ``XDG_CONFIG_HOME`` is not set or empty, it evaluates to
``/Users/steve/Library/Application Support/foo``. This gives XDG fans a choice
while not mandating ``.config`` for everyone else, especially for GUI apps.

Other changes:

- Reverts `ActiveState/appdirs#100
<https://github.com/ActiveState/appdirs/pull/100>`_. On macOS,
``user_config_dir`` and ``site_config_dir`` evaluates to subdirs of
``~/Library/Application Support`` and ``/Library/Application Support`` (unless
the relevant ``XDG_*`` env vars are set and non-empty), rather than subdirs of
``~/Library/Preferences`` and ``/Library/Preferences``, which are specifically
for plists and not suitable for anything else. You don't need ``appdirs`` to
tell you where to write plists.

- Properly handle empty ``XDG_*`` env vars. According to XDG BaseDir Spec,
defaults should be used when the env vars are empty.

The original README for ``appdirs`` follows.

the problem
===========

What directory should your app use for storing user data? If running on macOS, you
should use::

~/Library/Application Support/<AppName>

If on Windows (at least English Win XP) that should be::

C:\Documents and Settings\<User>\Application Data\Local Settings\<AppAuthor>\<AppName>

or possibly::

C:\Documents and Settings\<User>\Application Data\<AppAuthor>\<AppName>

for `roaming profiles <https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/it-pro/windows-vista/cc766489(v=ws.10)>`_ but that is another story.

On Linux (and other Unices) the dir, according to the `XDG
spec <https://standards.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/basedir-spec-latest.html>`_, is::

~/.local/share/<AppName>


``appdirs`` to the rescue
=========================

This kind of thing is what the ``appdirs`` module is for. ``appdirs`` will
help you choose an appropriate:

- user data dir (``user_data_dir``)
- user config dir (``user_config_dir``)
- user cache dir (``user_cache_dir``)
- site data dir (``site_data_dir``)
- site config dir (``site_config_dir``)
- user log dir (``user_log_dir``)

and also:

- is a single module so other Python packages can include their own private copy
- is slightly opinionated on the directory names used. Look for "OPINION" in
documentation and code for when an opinion is being applied.


some example output
===================

On macOS::

>>> from appdirs import *
>>> appname = "SuperApp"
>>> appauthor = "Acme"
>>> user_data_dir(appname, appauthor)
'/Users/trentm/Library/Application Support/SuperApp'
>>> site_data_dir(appname, appauthor)
'/Library/Application Support/SuperApp'
>>> user_cache_dir(appname, appauthor)
'/Users/trentm/Library/Caches/SuperApp'
>>> user_log_dir(appname, appauthor)
'/Users/trentm/Library/Logs/SuperApp'

On Windows 7::

>>> from appdirs import *
>>> appname = "SuperApp"
>>> appauthor = "Acme"
>>> user_data_dir(appname, appauthor)
'C:\\Users\\trentm\\AppData\\Local\\Acme\\SuperApp'
>>> user_data_dir(appname, appauthor, roaming=True)
'C:\\Users\\trentm\\AppData\\Roaming\\Acme\\SuperApp'
>>> user_cache_dir(appname, appauthor)
'C:\\Users\\trentm\\AppData\\Local\\Acme\\SuperApp\\Cache'
>>> user_log_dir(appname, appauthor)
'C:\\Users\\trentm\\AppData\\Local\\Acme\\SuperApp\\Logs'

On Linux::

>>> from appdirs import *
>>> appname = "SuperApp"
>>> appauthor = "Acme"
>>> user_data_dir(appname, appauthor)
'/home/trentm/.local/share/SuperApp
>>> site_data_dir(appname, appauthor)
'/usr/local/share/SuperApp'
>>> site_data_dir(appname, appauthor, multipath=True)
'/usr/local/share/SuperApp:/usr/share/SuperApp'
>>> user_cache_dir(appname, appauthor)
'/home/trentm/.cache/SuperApp'
>>> user_log_dir(appname, appauthor)
'/home/trentm/.cache/SuperApp/log'
>>> user_config_dir(appname)
'/home/trentm/.config/SuperApp'
>>> site_config_dir(appname)
'/etc/xdg/SuperApp'
>>> os.environ['XDG_CONFIG_DIRS'] = '/etc:/usr/local/etc'
>>> site_config_dir(appname, multipath=True)
'/etc/SuperApp:/usr/local/etc/SuperApp'


``AppDirs`` for convenience
===========================

::

>>> from appdirs import AppDirs
>>> dirs = AppDirs("SuperApp", "Acme")
>>> dirs.user_data_dir
'/Users/trentm/Library/Application Support/SuperApp'
>>> dirs.site_data_dir
'/Library/Application Support/SuperApp'
>>> dirs.user_cache_dir
'/Users/trentm/Library/Caches/SuperApp'
>>> dirs.user_log_dir
'/Users/trentm/Library/Logs/SuperApp'



Per-version isolation
=====================

If you have multiple versions of your app in use that you want to be
able to run side-by-side, then you may want version-isolation for these
dirs::

>>> from appdirs import AppDirs
>>> dirs = AppDirs("SuperApp", "Acme", version="1.0")
>>> dirs.user_data_dir
'/Users/trentm/Library/Application Support/SuperApp/1.0'
>>> dirs.site_data_dir
'/Library/Application Support/SuperApp/1.0'
>>> dirs.user_cache_dir
'/Users/trentm/Library/Caches/SuperApp/1.0'
>>> dirs.user_log_dir
'/Users/trentm/Library/Logs/SuperApp/1.0'


appdirs Changelog
=================

xdgappdirs 1.4.4
-------------
- Deviate from appdirs (see top of README)
- [PR #92] Don't import appdirs from setup.py which resolves issue #91
- Add Python 3.7 support
- Remove support for end-of-life Pythons 2.6, 3.2, and 3.3

Project officially classified as Stable which is important
for inclusion in other distros such as ActivePython.

appdirs 1.4.3
-------------
- [PR #76] Python 3.6 invalid escape sequence deprecation fixes
- Fix for Python 3.6 support

appdirs 1.4.2
-------------
- [PR #84] Allow installing without setuptools
- [PR #86] Fix string delimiters in setup.py description
- Add Python 3.6 support

appdirs 1.4.1
-------------
- [issue #38] Fix _winreg import on Windows Py3
- [issue #55] Make appname optional

appdirs 1.4.0
-------------
- [PR #42] AppAuthor is now optional on Windows
- [issue 41] Support Jython on Windows, Mac, and Unix-like platforms. Windows
support requires `JNA <https://github.com/twall/jna>`_.
- [PR #44] Fix incorrect behaviour of the site_config_dir method

appdirs 1.3.0
-------------
- [Unix, issue 16] Conform to XDG standard, instead of breaking it for
everybody
- [Unix] Removes gratuitous case mangling of the case, since \*nix-es are
usually case sensitive, so mangling is not wise
- [Unix] Fixes the utterly wrong behaviour in ``site_data_dir``, return result
based on XDG_DATA_DIRS and make room for respecting the standard which
specifies XDG_DATA_DIRS is a multiple-value variable
- [Issue 6] Add ``*_config_dir`` which are distinct on nix-es, according to
XDG specs; on Windows and Mac return the corresponding ``*_data_dir``

appdirs 1.2.0
-------------

- [Unix] Put ``user_log_dir`` under the *cache* dir on Unix. Seems to be more
typical.
- [issue 9] Make ``unicode`` work on py3k.

appdirs 1.1.0
-------------

- [issue 4] Add ``AppDirs.user_log_dir``.
- [Unix, issue 2, issue 7] appdirs now conforms to `XDG base directory spec
<https://standards.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/basedir-spec-latest.html>`_.
- [Mac, issue 5] Fix ``site_data_dir()`` on Mac.
- [Mac] Drop use of 'Carbon' module in favour of hardcoded paths; supports
Python3 now.
- [Windows] Append "Cache" to ``user_cache_dir`` on Windows by default. Use
``opinion=False`` option to disable this.
- Add ``appdirs.AppDirs`` convenience class. Usage:

>>> dirs = AppDirs("SuperApp", "Acme", version="1.0")
>>> dirs.user_data_dir
'/Users/trentm/Library/Application Support/SuperApp/1.0'

- [Windows] Cherry-pick Komodo's change to downgrade paths to the Windows short
paths if there are high bit chars.
- [Linux] Change default ``user_cache_dir()`` on Linux to be singular, e.g.
"~/.superapp/cache".
- [Windows] Add ``roaming`` option to ``user_data_dir()`` (for use on Windows only)
and change the default ``user_data_dir`` behaviour to use a *non*-roaming
profile dir (``CSIDL_LOCAL_APPDATA`` instead of ``CSIDL_APPDATA``). Why? Because
a large roaming profile can cause login speed issues. The "only syncs on
logout" behaviour can cause surprises in appdata info.


appdirs 1.0.1 (never released)
------------------------------

Started this changelog 27 July 2010. Before that this module originated in the
`Komodo <https://www.activestate.com/komodo-ide>`_ product as ``applib.py`` and then
as `applib/location.py
<https://github.com/ActiveState/applib/blob/master/applib/location.py>`_ (used by
`PyPM <https://code.activestate.com/pypm/>`_ in `ActivePython
<https://www.activestate.com/activepython>`_). This is basically a fork of
applib.py 1.0.1 and applib/location.py 1.0.1.


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