Article 6F47S Dotfiles matter: please stop dumping files in users’ $HOME directories.

Dotfiles matter: please stop dumping files in users’ $HOME directories.

by
Thom Holwerda
from OSnews on (#6F47S)

Dotfiles are important. We use them every day for storing configuration for all kinds of applications, knowingly or otherwise. You know the ones, hidden in your $HOME directory, ~/.ssh/ for your ssh keys, or ~/.Xauthority (whatever the heck that does). Something you may not know is these are legacy locations for configuration. Please do not copy their behaviour. Your application's configuration may be the most important thing on a user's machine. There are now standardised locations on major platforms for applications to store user-specific configuration.

Your application should not be dumping random files into an unconfigurable location in the user's home directory.

This speaks to my soul.

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