[Python-Dev] Python-Dev Digest, Vol 54, Issue 57 (original) (raw)

Daniel Arbuckle djarb at highenergymagic.org
Tue Jan 15 21:11:37 CET 2008

On Tue, 15 Jan 2008 06:57:02 -0500, Kevin Jacobs wrote:

On Jan 15, 2008 6:24 AM, Oleg Broytmann <phd at phd.pp.ru> wrote:

> On Mon, Jan 14, 2008 at 11:41:47PM +0000, Jon Ribbens wrote: > > It makes sense, but personally I have never heard before of ~/.local. > > Whereas ~/bin is something I am quite familiar with. > > Me too. python-dev is the only place I have heard of ~/.local. I have > been using Linux (different distributions), Solaris and FreeBSD for quite > a long time (though I have never used GNOME/KDE/etc.)

Never heard of it either, would be completely baffled if caught unawares by it in the wild. Has anyone consulted with the LSB or a cross-platform filesystem layout guide to see what the recommended best-practice is?

I use ~/local, with a layout analogous to /usr, all the time. It's not a standard, but in my experience it is by far the best solution to installing things in the home directory. It doesn't matter much whether you call it local or .local or .pythonlocal (although that last would limit the utility somewhat, by implying that other things should be installed there). It does matter that it be a subdirectory of ~, and that it be structured like /usr.

To those folks who favor creating ~/bin, ~/lib, ~/share, ad nauseum, I point out that non-hidden, non-user-created files in ~ ought to be kept to a minimum. It is, after all, the user's default workspace.

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