app_dirs 0.2.0

A library to locate common directories using platform-specific conventions.

A library to locate common directories using platform-specific conventions.

What's this?

This library follows platform-specific conventions to locate common directories. For example, the correct directory to use for application configuration files might be $HOME/.config/my-app on Linux, $HOME/Library/Application Support/My App on Macos, and %APPDATA%\My App\config on Windows.

To use:

var appDirs = getAppDirs(application: 'FooBar App');

// Use this directory for general application configuration files.
var configDir = appDirs.config;
...

// Use this directory for cached information.
var cacheDir = appDirs.cache;
...

See also our API docs.

Mac usage

Mac standards

For MacOS defaults, we follow Apple's

• Standard Directories docs. This generally puts files in subdirectories of $HOME/Library, which is appropriate for most Mac apps.

Mac alternate conventions

API clients can opt into a separate set of file location convetions for Macos. This is done via the preferUnixConventions flag:

var appDirs = getAppDirs(
  application: 'FooBar App',
  preferUnixConventions: true,
);

This will opt that tool into using Unix style directory conventions - for example, putting config files into $HOME/.config/foobar-app. While not the Macos standard file locations, this could better match user expectations for things like command-line tools.

Linux usage

On Unix OSes, we follow the XDG Base Directory Specification. This is generally creating directories under the user's $HOME directory, but respecting various $XDG_* environment variable overrides.

Windows usage

On Windows, we follow the standard Windows directory structure convention (docuented here and elsewhere).

BaseDirs values

This is the table of directories returned for Directories.baseDirs. AppDirs - the recommended API for people to use - builds on top of this using information like the application name, qualifier (org, com, ...) and organization name.

Property	Linux	Mac	Windows
home	$HOME	$HOME	%USERPROFILE%
cache	$XDG_CACHE_HOME or $HOME/.cache	$HOME/Library/Caches	%LOCALAPPDATA%
config	$XDG_CONFIG_HOME or $HOME/.config	$HOME/Library/Application Support	%APPDATA%
data	$XDG_DATA_HOME or $HOME/.local/share	$HOME/Library/Application Support	%APPDATA%
dataLocal	see data	see data	%LOCALAPPDATA%
preference	see config	$HOME/Library/Preferences	see config
state	$XDG_STATE_HOME or $HOME/.local/state	null	null

Useful references

Specifications and documentation:

• https://specifications.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/basedir-spec-latest.html
• developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/FileManagement
• https://pureinfotech.com/list-environment-variables-windows-10/

Similar libraries for other platforms:

• https://github.com/dirs-dev/directories-jvm
• https://github.com/dirs-dev/directories-rs

Publishing automation

For information about our publishing automation and release process, see https://github.com/dart-lang/ecosystem/wiki/Publishing-automation.