Why does $XDG_DATA_HOME default to ~/.local/share?

I wasn't there two decades ago when the spec was first being developed, but based on other parts of the spec they're clearly attempting to establish a parallel with /usr/local. The intended minimal PATH=~/.local/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin; XDG_DATA_HOME and XDG_DATA_DIRS form a similar order for data files that, were it to be represented in a single environment variable like PATH, would look like ~/.local/share:/usr/local/share/:/usr/share/.

Whether this was the XDG's idea or whether they were codifying an existing informal convention, I don't know. The use of ~/.config as the default for XDG_CONFIG_HOME instead of ~/.local/etc suggests the latter.

posted almost 3 years ago

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