File::BaseDir - Use the Freedesktop.org base directory specification


NAME

File::BaseDir - Use the Freedesktop.org base directory specification


SYNOPSIS

        use File::BaseDir qw/xdg_data_files/;
        for ( xdg_data_files('mime/globs') ) {
                # do something
        }


DESCRIPTION

This module can be used to find directories and files as specified by the Freedesktop.org Base Directory Specification. This specifications gives a mechanism to locate directories for configuration, application data and cache data. It is suggested that desktop applications for e.g. the Gnome, KDE or Xfce platforms follow this layout. However, the same layout can just as well be used for non-GUI applications.

This module forked from the File::MimeInfo manpage.

This module follows version 0.6 of BaseDir specification.


EXPORT

None by default, but all methods can be exported on demand. Also the groups ``:lookup'' and ``:vars'' are defined. The ``:vars'' group contains all routines with a ``xdg_'' prefix; the ``:lookup'' group contains the routines to locate files and directories.


METHODS

new()
Simple constructor to allow Object Oriented use of this module.

Lookup

The following methods are used to lookup files and folders in one of the search paths.

data_home(@PATH)
Takes a list of file path elements and returns a new path by appending them to the data home directory. The new path does not need to exist. Use this when writing user specific application data.

Example:

  # data_home is: /home/USER/.local/share
  $path = $bd->data_home('Foo', 'Bar', 'Baz');
  # returns: /home/USER/.local/share/Foo/Bar/Baz

data_dirs(@PATH)
Looks for directories specified by @PATH in the data home and other data directories. Returns (possibly empty) list of readable directories. In scalar context only the first directory found is returned. Use this to lookup application data.

data_files(@PATH)
Looks for files specified by @PATH in the data home and other data directories. Only returns files that are readable. In scalar context only the first file found is returned. Use this to lookup application data.

config_home(@PATH)
Takes a list of path elements and appends them to the config home directory returning a new path. The new path does not need to exist. Use this when writing user specific configuration.

config_dirs(@PATH)
Looks for directories specified by @PATH in the config home and other config directories. Returns (possibly empty) list of readable directories. In scalar context only the first directory found is returned. Use this to lookup configuration.

config_files(@PATH)
Looks for files specified by @PATH in the config home and other config directories. Returns a (possibly empty) list of files that are readable. In scalar context only the first file found is returned. Use this to lookup configuration.

cache_home(@PATH)
Takes a list of path elements and appends them to the cache home directory returning a new path. The new path does not need to exist.

Variables

The following methods only returns the value of one of the XDG variables.

xdg_data_home
Returns either $ENV{XDG_DATA_HOME} or it's default value. Default is $HOME/.local/share.

xdg_data_dirs
Returns either $ENV{XDG_DATA_DIRS} or it's default value as list. Default is /usr/local/share, /usr/share.

xdg_config_home
Returns either $ENV{XDG_CONFIG_HOME} or it's default value. Default is $HOME/.config.

xdg_config_dirs
Returns either $ENV{XDG_CONFIG_DIRS} or it's default value as list. Default is /etc/xdg.

xdg_cache_home
Returns either $ENV{XDG_CACHE_HOME} or it's default value. Default is $HOME/.cache.


NON-UNIX PLATFORMS

The use of the File::Spec manpage ensures that all paths are returned in the apropriate form for the current platform. On Windows this module will try to set $HOME to a sensible value if it is not defined yet. On other platforms one can use e.g. the File::HomeDir manpage to set $HOME before loading File::BaseDir.

Please note that the specification is targeting Unix platforms only and will only have limited relevance on other platforms. Any platform dependend behavior in this module should be considerd an extension of the spec.


BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY

The methods xdg_data_files() and xdg_config_files() are exported for backwards compatibilty with version 0.02. They are identical to data_files() and config_files() respectively but without the wantarray behavior.


BUGS

Please mail the author if you encounter any bugs.


AUTHOR

Jaap Karssenberg || Pardus [Larus] <pardus@cpan.org>

Copyright (c) 2003, 2007 Jaap G Karssenberg. All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.


SEE ALSO

http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/basedir-spec

 File::BaseDir - Use the Freedesktop.org base directory specification