[tor-bugs] #11325 [Tor]: RFE: Adhere to XDB base directory specification

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#11325: RFE: Adhere to XDB base directory specification
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     Reporter:  jamielinux  |      Owner:
         Type:  defect      |     Status:  new
     Priority:  minor       |  Milestone:  Tor: unspecified
    Component:  Tor         |    Version:  Tor: unspecified
   Resolution:              |   Keywords:  tor-client xdg-compliance
Actual Points:              |  Parent ID:
       Points:              |
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Comment (by jamielinux):

 Replying to [comment:1 nickm]:
 > What would be the benefit of users to adopting this standard?  What
 operating systems support it?

 I believe all modern Linux distributions support use of this standard, but
 support is more application specific not operating system specific. Many
 software packages on Fedora read the XDG_* variables if they are
 available, while others ignore them completely.

 I'm personally not all that fussed about this. The Fedora package is
 usually run as root anyway, in which case these data files are stored in
 /var/lib/tor.

 The benefits usually expressed include:
  - more organized home directory
  - more predictable locations for user-specific application files
  - more flexibility for changing these locations (eg, the user can set
 custom XDG_* variables)

 > (XDG_CACHE_HOME would not be appropriate -- only some of the files are
 cache files.  The "state" file, for example, is not cached information,
 and treating it as safe-to-delete would degrade security.  The "keys"
 subdirectory may contain sensitive private keys, and the "lock" file goes
 wherever locks go.)

 Hmm agreed. XDG_DATA_HOME I would guess to be a more appropriate place for
 all of the files. (One might consider splitting files between different
 XDG directories according to their nature, but this would actually make
 things more confusing rather than providing any benefit.)

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/11325#comment:2>
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