[Python-Dev] Python-Dev Digest, Vol 54, Issue 57

[Daniel Arbuckle]

On Tue, 15 Jan 2008 06:57:02 -0500, Kevin Jacobs wrote:
> On Jan 15, 2008 6:24 AM, Oleg Broytmann <phd at phd.pp.ru> wrote:
>
> > On Mon, Jan 14, 2008 at 11:41:47PM +0000, Jon Ribbens wrote:
> > > It makes sense, but personally I have never heard before of ~/.local.
> > > Whereas ~/bin is something I am quite familiar with.
> >
> >   Me too. python-dev is the only place I have heard of ~/.local. I have
> > been using Linux (different distributions), Solaris and FreeBSD for quite
> > a long time (though I have never used GNOME/KDE/etc.)
>
>
> Never heard of it either, would be completely baffled if caught unawares by
> it in the wild.  Has anyone consulted with the LSB or a cross-platform
> filesystem layout guide to see what the recommended best-practice is?

I use ~/local, with a layout analogous to /usr, all the time. It's not
a standard, but in my experience it is by far the best solution to
installing things in the home directory. It doesn't matter much
whether you call it local or .local or .pythonlocal (although that
last would limit the utility somewhat, by implying that other things
should be installed there). It does matter that it be a _subdirectory_
of ~, and that it be structured like /usr.

To those folks who favor creating ~/bin, ~/lib, ~/share, ad nauseum, I
point out that non-hidden, non-user-created files in ~ ought to be
kept to a minimum. It is, after all, the user's default workspace.