[Python-ideas] A standard location for Python configuration files.

Antoine Pitrou solipsis at pitrou.net
Thu Oct 22 13:41:52 CEST 2009


> First of all we should discuss if we are talking about automatically
> generated config files or human editable config files. If the
> configuration files are frequently edited by a user than ~/.local or
> ~/.config aren't the best place.

Well, I'm not sure what a non-human editable config file would be.
Of course, stuff which is not meant to be edited by a human can
(should?) go into .local.
But for a human-editable config file, to place it in .local is quite
unintuitive.

> The path ~/.python is a so obvious choice for a file or directory that
> contains Python specific stuff that it probably used by lots of people.
> If we are going to introduce a directory in the user's home directory
> and not in some subfolder like ~/.local or ~/.config, then I like to
> stick to another Unix tradition. Configuration directories are usually
> suffixed with ".d". How about ~/.python.d/?

Well, I have only two of them here: ".pylint.d" and ".emacs.d"; the
other configuration directories don't have a ".d" suffix.

But the point is really that it's natural and legitimate for Python to
use a ".python" directory. It's not like we are planning to call it
".config" or ".settings".

Regards

Antoine.






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