Re: [Emacs-diffs] master d68ed15: Implement and document XDG-style startup files under ~/.config.

[Amin Bandali <bandali@gnu.org>]

Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:

> Eric,
>
> This change must be documented in NEWS.  I also think we should have
> discussed such a significant change in behavior before pushing the
> commit.
>
> Thanks.
>
>

Seconded.  Some comments about d68ed15:

- It hard-codes ~/.config, whereas the XDG Base Directory specification
  specifies that $XDG_CONFIG_HOME should be consulted and if it’s not
  set or if it’s empty then fall back to ~/.config.  If we are doing
  this, let’s try to do it properly from the start :)

- The convention for programs adhering to the spec is to keep their
  files in a subdirectory of $XDG_CONFIG_HOME named after the program
  itself.  For instance, i3 would use $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/i3 and msmtp
  would use $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/msmtp.  So, I think it would be best for
  Emacs to use $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/emacs instead of the proposed
  $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/emacs.d, and put all emacs-related things in it.  In
  short, the paths would look like:

  - ~/.emacs -> $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/emacs/emacsrc
  - ~/.emacs.el -> $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/emacs/emacs.el
  - ~/.emacs.d/init.el -> $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/emacs/init.el

  I also suggest adjusting the custom-file examples to the following
  respectively:

  - $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/emacs/custom-21.el
  - $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/emacs/custom-22.el
  - $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/emacs/custom.el

The specification is available from [1], and the ArchWiki page [2]
provides a helpful summary, as well as a long list of programs
supporting the spec and links to their implementation commits.

[1]: https://specifications.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/basedir-spec-0.8.html
[2]: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/XDG_Base_Directory

Thanks for working on this.

-amin