[ENH] - Consider using OS-specific standards for `conda-store` data

jaimergp commented 10 months ago

Feature description

As part of #513, it was suggested to use ~/.conda-store as the default data directory. This was implemented successfully in https://github.com/conda-incubator/conda-store/pull/639.

I am suggesting we stick to well defined standards for this kind of decisions, instead of polluting the home directory with one more dot-folder. Namely:

On Linux, follow XDG Base Directory Specification
On macOS, it seems that CLI apps still follow XDG standards as Linux. GUI stuff drops things in ~/Library. See this SO thread.
On Windows, we should probably use %LOCALAPPDATA% (i.e. non-roaming).

Value and/or benefit

Following well established standards in each Operating System allow us to be better citizens, and navigate better known spaces (e.g. permissions, lack of user profiles in some Windows installations).

A nice side effect, and one of the reasons these standards exist, is to avoid polluting the user profile with dot-directories.

Anything else?

Comes from https://github.com/conda-incubator/conda-store/pull/639#issuecomment-1787555517

nkaretnikov commented 10 months ago

ArchWiki list, with links to various issues: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/XDG_Base_Directory_support

costrouc commented 10 months ago

Yeah totally agree we should use system defaults

jaimergp commented 10 months ago

conda is going to switch to platformdirs (instead of the vendored appdirs), which seems to abstract away all the complicated business:

https://platformdirs.readthedocs.io/en/latest/index.html

nkaretnikov commented 8 months ago

Status update: not working on this until other issues in the milestone are resolved.

conda-incubator / conda-store