Matthew Lyon4d ago

mac users:

You download a techincally-oriented GUI app with a plain text config file format (let's say KDL or such) that you're encouraged to open. You expect it to be located in...

I'd love to hear thoughts on this in the replies

~/Library/Application Support/com.vendorname.prog/
~/Library/Preferences/com.vendorname.prog.file
$XDG_HOME/prog/
somewhere else
Poll ends at .
Show threadJan Lehnardt 4d ago
@mattly the majority is wrong.
Show threadMatthew Lyon3d ago
@janl *I* agree with you but this is one of those things where doing what I consider right ($Xdg_Home) is a lot more difficult than going with defaults (what the majority says)
Show threadJan Lehnardt 
@mattly eew no, Library/Preferences.
Mar 23 at 2:39pmWeb
Show threadMatthew Lyon3d ago
@janl heh; I think the thing with that directory is you’re supposed to put plist files there
Show threadMatthew Lyon3d ago
@janl that said it is one one place in Library that I feel confident backing up without making exceptions because some idiot is using it for cache files
Show threadMatthew Lyon3d ago

@janl digging into this a bit more, macOS only wants .plist files in Library/Preferences, and if you're working with the sandbox APIs that's apparently the only thing it'll let you put there

some apps are putting other things there in directories but apparently this might be forbidden in a future OS version

if you want a cross-platform config format, macOS wants you to put it in ApplicationSupport, as that's where "configs" go

getting the actual value of $XDG_HOME from a GUI app double-clicked in the finder is difficult, it seems many apps which claim to do this just hardcode $HOME/.config instead

meanwhile my ApplicationSupport dir sits at 116 GB, most of which are resources apps have downloaded from the internet, but also a few GB of cache files

what a shitshow

Show threadJan Lehnardt 3d ago
@mattly that deprecation warning is nearing two decades of age :)