672
Dotfiles matter! Please stop dumping files in users’ $HOME directories.
(dotfiles-matter.click)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2023
672 points (98.7% liked)
Linux
48186 readers
1184 users here now
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
Rules
- Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
- No misinformation
- No NSFW content
- No hate speech, bigotry, etc
Related Communities
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
XDG gang, rise up!
Also, I know that this community and dot-files in general are Unix based, but this holds true for Windows development as well. You should be putting app files in the users'
%APPDATA%directory, not their user folder. It's probably even more important since Windows doesn't autohide dot files.The My Documents / Documents folder on Windows is a dumping ground for game saves and random applications. I no longer use it for saving my documents anymore…
Yep, my ~/Projects folder is where I keep anything I need to actually find. All the normal places are full of random cruft.
I don't touch it either for two reasons that go together.
My cloud drive has SO much random flstudio crap in it. That's the worst program in the world when it comes to that. If you install their program they think they own your hard drive.
Also while I'm bitching about windows folders, why did they make it so weird to get to your home folder? It feels like we aren't supposed to know it exists anymore.
For the last point, even worse on Mac
It's not terrible once you learn the muscle memory.
I'm sure there's some obscure key bind to go directly there, but I just do
Cmd+Shift+Gin Finder to get to the browse to path dialog, type~, and hit return.Still a stupid extra amount of work, but at least it's not having to use my mouse, typing
%USERPROFILE%, or having to type the absolute path. That would piss me off even more.It's just
Cmd+Shift+H(for Home). The shortcuts for many of the most common locations are extremely intuitive.Cmd+Shift+A(Applications)Cmd+Shift+D(Desktop)Cmd+Shift+L(~/Library)Cmd+Shift+C(Computer)Finder > Go > Home
Been that way for decades. Or you can add it to the sidebar by dragging and dropping, or just edit Finder prefs:
Finder > Preferences > Sidebar
Microsoft only started showing the Home folder by default in 11 I believe so it’s a pretty common pattern to not reveal the home folder (for some asinine reason).
First thing I do on any OS is build my own folder structure under my home.
It makes me so mad every time I remember my instance is fucking censored
To be honest, pretty much all my files that actually matter are under my Dropbox folder. Everything else is ephemeral. I mostly depend on Steam or the likes to backup game saves. Not much else I care about. I've upgraded my PC a few times (with no full backups) and never missed a single thing that got lost in the upgrade.
One of my proudest accomplishments is contributing to the XDG Base Dir spec. I fixed a typo.
Which one?
Unfortunately not even Microsoft does that... On windows having a logical order is a lost battle