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 File::MimeInfo.
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.
The use of File::Spec 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.
File::HomeDir 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 compatibility 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>