File::BaseDir(3pm)             User Contributed Perl Documentation             File::BaseDir(3pm)



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.

NON-UNIX PLATFORMS
       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 AT 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>



perl v5.10.1                                2010-02-24                         File::BaseDir(3pm)