Editing Freedesktop.org (section)

=== Base Directory Specification ===
{{see also|Filesystem Hierarchy Standard}}
''XDG Base Directory Specification'' (XDG BDS) introduces a range of variables where user-specific files used by programs should be found.<ref name=":0">[https://specifications.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/basedir-spec-latest.html XDG Base Directory Specification], freedesktop.org, accessed: 2021-05-15.</ref> Many tools and applications utilize these variables by default.<ref>{{Cite web|title=XDG Base Directory - ArchWiki|url=https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/XDG_Base_Directory|access-date=2021-10-08|website=wiki.archlinux.org}}</ref> 

==== User directories ====
Besides the variables mentioned below, XDG BDS also specifies that users' local binary files may be installed into {{code| $HOME/.local/bin}}. Systems compliant with the spec are expected to make this directory available in their [[Command-line interface|CLI]]'s {{code|PATH}} environment variable.<ref name=":0" />
;{{Code|XDG_DATA_HOME}}
: For user application's own data files
: Default to {{Code|$HOME/.local/share}}
;{{Code|XDG_CONFIG_HOME}}
: For user's app configuration files
: Default to {{Code|$HOME/.config}}
;{{Code|XDG_STATE_HOME}}
: For user-specific app session data, which should be stored for future reuse
: Default to {{Code|$HOME/.local/state}}
: May include logs, recently used files, application-specific information (e.g. window layout, views, opened files, undo history, etc.), akin to session data that should be stored by app by request of system session manager, like [[X session manager]]
;{{Code|XDG_CACHE_HOME}}
: For user-specific apps cache files
: Default to {{code|$HOME/.cache}}
;{{Code|XDG_RUNTIME_DIR}}
: For user-specific app runtime files like sockets which must not survive reboot and full logout/login cycles

==== System directories ====
;{{Code|XDG_DATA_DIRS}}
: Colon-separated list of preference-ordered paths to search for data files in
: Default to {{Code|/usr/local/share/:/usr/share/}}
;{{Code|XDG_CONFIG_DIRS}}
: The same as above but for config files
: Default to {{Code|/etc/xdg/}}