xdg/base-directory

PHP implementation of the XDG Base Directory Specification, with sensible default fallbacks for non-linux platforms.

Installation

composer require xdg/base-directory

Usage

use Xdg\BaseDirectory\XdgBaseDirectory;

// we start by instantiating a platform:
$platform = XdgBaseDirectory::fromEnvironment();
// get the XDG_CONFIG_HOME directory
$configHome = $platform->getConfigHome();
// find the most user-specific existing configuration file:
$configPath = $platform->findConfigPath('my-app/config.json', \file_exists(...));

See the PlatformInterface for all available platform methods.

Fallback values for Windows and macOS platforms

While on most Unix platforms, the XDG environment variables are usually defined, this is typically not the case on Windows and macOS.

This library choses to deviate from the spec and provide sensible defaults on those platforms.

Windows

On windows, when an XDG environment variable is not set, we first try to find a matching Known Folder:

XDG env	Known Folder(s)
HOME	Profile
XDG_CONFIG_HOME	LocalAppData
XDG_DATA_HOME	LocalAppData
XDG_STATE_HOME	LocalAppData
XDG_CACHE_HOME	LocalAppData/cache
XDG_RUNTIME_DIR	LocalAppData
XDG_CONFIG_DIRS	ProgramData, RoamingAppData
XDG_DATA_DIRS	RoamingAppData, ProgramData

If the known folder is not defined, we then try to fall back to a windows-specific environment variable, then fall back to a static default:

KnownFolder	Windows env	default
Profile	USERPROFILE, HOMEDRIVE + HOMEPATH	🚨 Error 🚨
LocalAppData	LOCALAPPDATA	$HOME/AppData/Local
RoamingAppData	APPDATA	$HOME/AppData/Roaming
ProgramData	ProgramData	%SystemDrive%/ProgramData, C:/ProgramData

MacOS

XDG env	Fallback
XDG_CONFIG_HOME	$HOME/Library/Application Support
XDG_DATA_HOME	$HOME/Library/Application Support
XDG_STATE_HOME	$HOME/Library/Application Support
XDG_CACHE_HOME	$HOME/Library/caches
XDG_RUNTIME_DIR	$HOME/Library/Application Support
XDG_CONFIG_DIRS	$HOME/Library/Preferences, /Library/Application Support, /Library/Preferences
XDG_DATA_DIRS	/Library/Application Support