What's the difference between a configuration .dotfile in ~ and one in ~/.config? And what's .local meant to be good for, exactly?
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Re: ~/.config and ~/.local
There is an XDG specification for directories for storing user configuration and data (see links below).
the "primary" goal is to separate user configs/data/cache to separate directories (many programs currently store all these in one ~/.appname directory)
According to the spec, user configuration files should be placed in ~/.config, user data (like mail and contacts) in ~/.local(/share) and cache in ~/.cache.
This will bring a number of advantages, like the ability to delete program configurations without fear of user data loss, or easy user data backup without backing up configs or cache unnecessarily etc.
The spec should also make $HOME a bit cleaner (not as many .directories on the first level)
Of course many programs don't follow the spec yet.
A few links:
http://standards.freedesktop.org/bas...ec-latest.html
http://ploum.frimouvy.org/?207-modif...se-xdg-folders
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Re: ~/.config and ~/.local
Thanks, that makes sense. So the apps that use .local, .config, and .cache are basically either more modern or more well-behaved (or more conformist). Thanks for the links, too.Comment
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