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https://github.com/9viz/declutter-home

declutter your home directory!
https://github.com/9viz/declutter-home

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declutter your home directory!

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README 

        
#+TITLE: declutter-home

#+AUTHOR: Visuwesh



* Disclaimer



This repository is bound to get outdated and have broken links as time

goes on.  I no longer engage in the work that will be highlighted

below so I do not feel any need or /responsibility/ to fix these.

Moreover, I might not add new information to this repository but if

you have any, or want to fix any broken links and outdated/mis-

information, please send a patch to visuweshm [at] gmail [dot] com.



P.S. I am not responsible for any breakage whatsoever.  You engaged in

this madness by yourself.



* Dotfiles---Origin and History



In an attempt to make ls not list "." and ".."  [1], a bug introduced

the notion of hidden files (or "dotfiles") which was subsequently

abused by people and hence became a "feature".



This misfeature was completely removed in Plan 9.  Plan 9 follows a

sane hierarchy and even has a XDG_CONFIGURATION_HOME/XDG_DATA_HOME

like directory---~/lib.



* Freedesktop's XDG Environment Variables



Freedesktop defines numerous environment variables [2] that helps to

keep the home directory organised and the data grouped in a hierarchy.

Declaring them goes a long way in keeping the home directory tidy but

some of the older software might/do not follow this.



The basic environmental variables are listed below for your

convenience,



    1. XDG_CACHE_HOME

    2. XDG_CONFIG_HOME

    3. XDG_DATA_HOME



Refer to [2] to learn what they mean.



* Application-specific Environment Variables



As hinted in the previous section, some software do not follow the XDG

convention.  Some of these outliers have an environment variable or a

flag that allows you to change the directory used to store the data.

A table of known environment variable/flag is listed below.



| Software      | Environmental variable(s) | Flag(s)               |

|---------------+---------------------------+-----------------------|

| dialog        | DIALOGRC                  | -                     |

| dunst         | -                         | -conf                 |

| GIMP          | GIMP2_DIRECTORY           | -                     |

| gnupg         | GNUPGHOME                 | -                     |

| ksh (a)       | ENV                       | -                     |

| less          | LESSHISTFILE              | -                     |

| mail          | MAIL MAILRC               | -                     |

| neovim (b)    | NVIM_LOG_FILE             | -                     |

| pass          | PASSWORD_STORE_DIR        | -                     |

| picom         | -                         | --config              |

| pulseaudio    | PULSE_COOKIE              | -                     |

| python        | PYTHONPATH PYTHONUSERBASE | -                     |

| readline      | INPUTRC                   | -                     |

| shell history | HISTFILE                  | -                     |

| sxhkd         | -                         | -c                    |

| wget          | -                         | --no-hsts --hsts-file |

| xauth         | XAUTHORITY                | -                     |

| xinit         | XINITRC                   | -                     |

| zsh (c)       | ZDOTDIR                   | -                     |



- a :: MKSHRC_PATH can be changed during compile time to change the

  shellrc filename if you use mksh.

- b :: Nvim creates .nvimlog in the current directory by default.

- c :: Set it in /etc/zsh/zshenv [3].



If you are confused about all the files used by Xorg, consult

https://nixers.net/showthread.php?tid=2271.



* Workaround



If neither of the options are available, you can either try patching

the software or writing a wrapper script that temporarily sets the

HOME directory for the software.  As an example, consider a script for

Firefox,



#+BEGIN_EXAMPLE

#!/bin/sh



HOME=$HOME/firefox_junk firefox $@

#+END_EXAMPLE



Xfce apps ignores this.  You have to launch xfconfd with the modified

HOME directory; this is likely located at /lib/xfce4/xfconf/xfconfd.



See also https://wiki.zakaria.org/privsec/home.html.



* Patches



If you find the workaround ugly, or if the software is resilient, you

can try patching it.  Patching usually requires a minimal working

knowledge of the language used but for our purposes, familiarity with

the shell should be enough.



An oversimplified outline of the process looks like,



#+BEGIN_EXAMPLE

% grep -R '\.software'

[output]

% sed 's|\.software||g' files

#+END_EXAMPLE



You might find some of my patches in https://github.com/vizs/ports

useful.



* Structure



To reduce chaos, you need structure but too rigid of a structure

becomes a chore an annoyance [*] so some chaos is desirable.  A

vaguely organised home directory also helps you in writing scaleable

scripts that analyse the directory structure to work.  Pick something

that works for you.  No example will be provided since this is

something that YOU have to decide for yourself.



    [*] This is part of the reason why I do not follow the practises

        listed in the repository.  At some point, it became a chore

        and I lost interest in maintaining a pristine home directory

        for the sake of internet points.



* References



1. http://xahlee.info/UnixResource_dir/writ/unix_origin_of_dot_filename.html

2. https://specifications.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/latest/ar01s03.html

3. https://github.com/vizs/declutter-home/issues/1



* See Also



1. https://github.com/dylanaraps/clutter-home

2. https://nixers.net/showthread.php?tid=1293

3. https://nixers.net/showthread.php?tid=2271

4. https://wiki.zakaria.org/privsec/home.html