Waterfox: on linux it should be .config/waterfox

[pirate486743186]

On linux, there's a convention for quite some time that you put your config stuff in .config/myprogram instead of .myprogram.

Firefox is very old, what 17 years old now? That convention didn't exist back then. They didn't moved it as it wasn't worth the pain. This is why it is still in .mozilla.....

You should move it again, now that it's fresh in peoples minds and overwhelmingly used by power users, and then never touch it ever again.

[TobiasHoll]

Technically it should use $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/waterfox ($XDG_CONFIG_HOME defaults to $HOME/.config).

Related Firefox bug: 259356

[pirate486743186]

Almost what you said....
In ubuntu the variable is not set.
Then the apps should default to that.

[grahamperrin]

OK, Mozilla bug 259356 - Support for the Freedesktop.org XDG Base Directory Specification.

I guess that if Waterfox for Linux and for FreeBSD can be fixed to address all or part of that bug, then we should also:

• consider the possibility of a change of path leading to apparent breakage of some types of extension

– whilst #329 relates to a portable edition, on Windows, its 'path change' aspect reminds of another Mozilla bug (if I find it, I'll add a link) …

[TomJansen]

The problem with this is that it is not really good practice to just change ~/.waterfox to $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/waterfox, because the spec actually refers to 3 locations:

$XDG_DATA_HOME defines the base directory relative to which user specific data files should be stored. Defaults to: $HOME/.local/share

$XDG_CONFIG_HOME defines the base directory relative to which user specific configuration files should be stored. Defaults to: $HOME/.config

$XDG_CACHE_HOME defines the base directory relative to which user specific non-essential data files should be stored. Defaults to: $HOME/.cache

So we need to split up the profile folder, but the problem is figuring out what file should go where...

[grahamperrin]

@TomJansen maybe post to the Mozilla bug instead? I have some comments (based primarily on experience with Apple) but they're not Waterfox-specific …

[grahamperrin]

For _Core_, needs review:

• ⚙ D6995 Bug 259356 - Add support for the XDG Base Directory Specification.

[ilu33]

I don't think this should be fixed in waterfox as long as it is neither fixed in firefox nor in thunderbird. It's not critical in any way and users expect the directories of mozilla forks in $XDG_HOME. Time can be spent on more important issues.

[mikejzx]

Any updates on this?

As a Linux user it's certainly irritating to have applications store their files in the home directory and clog it up all the time. There was discussion of this happening 16 years ago here: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=259356 and it still hasn't been implemented...