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the problem
===========
What directory should your app use for storing user data? If running on Mac
OS X, you
should use::
~/Library/Application Support/
If on Windows (at least English Win XP) that should be::
C:\Documents and Settings\\Application Data\Local
Settings\\
or possibly::
C:\Documents and Settings\\Application Data\\
for [roaming profiles] but that is another story.
On Linux (and other Unices) the dir, according to the [XDG
spec], is::
~/.local/share/
appdirs to the rescue
=========================
This kind of thing is what the appdirs module is for. appdirs will
help you choose an appropriate:
- user data dir (user_data_dir)
- user config dir (user_config_dir)
- user cache dir (user_cache_dir)
- site data dir (site_data_dir)
- site config dir (site_config_dir)
- user log dir (user_log_dir)
and also:
- is a single module so other Python packages can include their own private
copy
- is slightly opinionated on the directory names used. Look for "OPINION"
in
documentation and code for when an opinion is being applied.
some example output
===================
On Mac OS X::
>>> from appdirs import *
>>> appname = "SuperApp"
>>> appauthor = "Acme"
>>> user_data_dir(appname, appauthor)
'/Users/trentm/Library/Application Support/SuperApp'
>>> site_data_dir(appname, appauthor)
'/Library/Application Support/SuperApp'
>>> user_cache_dir(appname, appauthor)
'/Users/trentm/Library/Caches/SuperApp'
>>> user_log_dir(appname, appauthor)
'/Users/trentm/Library/Logs/SuperApp'
On Windows 7::
>>> from appdirs import *
>>> appname = "SuperApp"
>>> appauthor = "Acme"
>>> user_data_dir(appname, appauthor)
'C:\\Users\\trentm\\AppData\\Local\\Acme\\SuperApp'
>>> user_data_dir(appname, appauthor, roaming=True)
'C:\\Users\\trentm\\AppData\\Roaming\\Acme\\SuperApp'
>>> user_cache_dir(appname, appauthor)
'C:\\Users\\trentm\\AppData\\Local\\Acme\\SuperApp\\Cache'
>>> user_log_dir(appname, appauthor)
'C:\\Users\\trentm\\AppData\\Local\\Acme\\SuperApp\\Logs'
On Linux::
>>> from appdirs import *
>>> appname = "SuperApp"
>>> appauthor = "Acme"
>>> user_data_dir(appname, appauthor)
'/home/trentm/.local/share/SuperApp
>>> site_data_dir(appname, appauthor)
'/usr/local/share/SuperApp'
>>> site_data_dir(appname, appauthor, multipath=True)
'/usr/local/share/SuperApp:/usr/share/SuperApp'
>>> user_cache_dir(appname, appauthor)
'/home/trentm/.cache/SuperApp'
>>> user_log_dir(appname, appauthor)
'/home/trentm/.cache/SuperApp/log'
>>> user_config_dir(appname)
'/home/trentm/.config/SuperApp'
>>> site_config_dir(appname)
'/etc/xdg/SuperApp'
>>> os.environ['XDG_CONFIG_DIRS'] = '/etc:/usr/local/etc'
>>> site_config_dir(appname, multipath=True)
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