[Feature]: move settings under $HOME/.config/waveterm

[maxadamo]

Feature description

settings are currently stored under $HOME/.waveterm, and as a result of this the home directory is very cluttered.

Implementation Suggestion

The new applications tend to store the settings under $HOME/.config/<app-name>

Anything else?

No response

[esimkowitz]

The location can be updated by manually moving the directory and setting the WAVETERM_HOME env var to the new location. Does this satisfy your use case? I'm hesitant to change the default right now as it might make the folder harder to find. Open to being convinced otherwise

[abhabongse]

I would like to chip in a bit. Most modern applications in *nix (Linux, MacOS, etc.) respect XDG Base Directory Specification, which means that:

• User configurations should normally be stored in $HOME/.config/waveterm/*
• Other data (not intended to be user-configurable) should be stored in $HOME/.local/share/waveterm/*

Using $HOME/.waveterm is a somewhat surprising behavior for modern users of *nix, which may go against the point that "it might make the folder harder to find," depending on each user's diversed background experience.

Personally, I'm redefining $WAVETERM_HOME for now, and it's not a big deal at all. But moving towards a common convention would also be nice.

Sorry if I'm coming out as rude or too demanding.

Edit: One nice thing about using common $HOME/.config is that backing up config files for multiple applications are much simpler.

[esimkowitz]

Y'all got me convinced 😄

Working to get this merged in v0.9, working out a back-compat story

[maxadamo]

Lots of changes have been implemented over time.
Back in the days, the root directory (/) was the home directory for root user, and it was cluttered (and everyone could list the files on /), /bin became a symlink, and I guess it will vanish at some point, sticky bits on files have been removed as well... so, yeah: let's ask to change WAVETERM_HOME to those who prefer using the $HOME/.waveterm directory 😸

Thanks.

[esimkowitz]

yeah definitely leaving it there for folks who prefer it, but the new default will be XDG

[esimkowitz]

@maxadamo @abhabongse I'm a bit hesitant to set .config as the default for macOS, given it's not the platform default (~/Library/Application Support). Do you have XDG_CONFIG_HOME, etc. manually set on macOS?

[esimkowitz]

I've updated the PR with what I feel is a good compromise.

Going forward for new installations, config and data files will be stored at the platform default paths, as defined by env-paths.

For backwards compatibility, if the ~/.waveterm or WAVETERM_HOME directory exists and contains valid data, it will be used. If this check fails, then WAVETERM_DATA_HOME and WAVETERM_CONFIG_HOME will be used. If these are not defined, then XDG_DATA_HOME and XDG_CONFIG_HOME will be used. Finally, if none of these are defined, the env-paths defaults will be used.

As with the existing app, dev instances will write to waveterm-dev directories, while all others will write to waveterm.

[maxadamo]

I've updated the PR with what I feel is a good compromise.

Going forward for new installations, config and data files will be stored at the platform default paths, as defined by env-paths.

For backwards compatibility, if the ~/.waveterm or WAVETERM_HOME directory exists and contains valid data, it will be used. If this check fails, then WAVETERM_DATA_HOME and WAVETERM_CONFIG_HOME will be used. If these are not defined, then XDG_DATA_HOME and XDG_CONFIG_HOME will be used. Finally, if none of these are defined, the env-paths defaults will be used.

I don't have the XDG variables on my Mac. The solution that you are implementing looks good to me.
Some application installed with brew, store their configurations under $HOME/.config, some others don't. Maybe I should raise an issue for those applications, which are not adhering to the new standard.
For instance, even in Linux, Google Chrome respects the XDG standard but Firefox doesn't.