Finding where to store application data portably

[Jeff Schwab]

Steven D'Aprano wrote:

> As a Linux user, I really am sick of every damn application, script and
> program under the sun filling the top level of my home directory with
> dot-files.
> 
> I wish the Linux Standard Base folks would specify that settings files
> should all go into a subdirectory like ~/settings rather than filling up
> the home directory with cruft. That was acceptable in the days when people
> only looked at their files with ls, but in these days of GUI file
> managers, it is ridiculous that there are more than 100 dot files and
> directories in my home directory.

What difference does it make whether one is using a GUI or a command 
line?  Anyway, the vast majority of Unix users I know still use ls a lot 
more often than GUI-based file managers.

I prefer to keep my settings in ~/etc, as a sort of intuitive parallel 
to the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard.

> <tilting at windmills>
> 
> Can I ask developers to break with the obsolete and annoying habit of
> creating user-specific config files as ~/.app-name and use
> ~/settings/app-name instead?
> 
> </tilting at windmills>

Better:  a user-specified $ETCDIR.