Ubuntu – How to get the (XDG) Default User Directories from Python

pythonxdgxdg-base-directory

By example,
In English the default user folders will be:

$HOME/Desktop
....
$HOME/Videos

In Spanish the default user folders will be:

$HOME/Escritorio
....
$HOME/Vídeos

The file ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs has those localize names for the default folders. (Always?).

I need to get those names from a python script. I'd like not to parse that file. Is there other elegant way?
I found this:

from xdg.BaseDirectory import *
print xdg_cache_home
print xdg_config_dirs
print xdg_config_home
print xdg_data_dirs
print xdg_data_home

But it doesn't return those folders.

Thanks in advance!

Best Answer

If you don't mind getting a dependency on GLib or if you're already using GTK as toolkit, you can use the GLib.get_user_special_dir() method.

>>> from gi.repository import GLib
>>> GLib.get_user_special_dir(GLib.USER_DIRECTORY_PICTURES)
'/home/timo/Afbeeldingen'
>>> GLib.get_user_special_dir(GLib.USER_DIRECTORY_DOCUMENTS)
'/home/timo/Documenten'
>>> GLib.get_user_special_dir(GLib.USER_DIRECTORY_DOWNLOAD)
'/home/timo/Downloads'

All available directories:

G_USER_DIRECTORY_DESKTOP         the user's Desktop directory
G_USER_DIRECTORY_DOCUMENTS       the user's Documents directory
G_USER_DIRECTORY_DOWNLOAD        the user's Downloads directory
G_USER_DIRECTORY_MUSIC           the user's Music directory
G_USER_DIRECTORY_PICTURES        the user's Pictures directory
G_USER_DIRECTORY_PUBLIC_SHARE    the user's shared directory
G_USER_DIRECTORY_TEMPLATES       the user's Templates directory
G_USER_DIRECTORY_VIDEOS          the user's Movies directory
G_USER_N_DIRECTORIES             the number of enum values

If you get this error message:

ImportError: When using gi.repository you must not import static modules like "gobject". Please change all occurrences of "import gobject" to "from gi.repository import GObject".

You need to use this:

import glib
return glib.get_user_special_dir(glib.USER_DIRECTORY_PICTURES)

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – How to change the default location of content directories (eg Pictures, Templates, Music) in the home folder

Yes to do what you need you simply need to change the xdg configuration for each existing user like so:

~/.config/user-dirs.dirs

XDG_DESKTOP_DIR="$HOME/Desktop"
...
XDG_MUSIC_DIR="/home/common/Music"
XDG_VIDEOS_DIR="$HOME/Movies"

And to make this something available to all users created simply edit this:

/etc/xdg/user-dirs.defaults

DESKTOP=Desktop
...
MUSIC=../common/Music
VIDEOS=Videos

To modify the permissions, this bit is tricky because you need to make sure that all files created in these directories remain editable by everyone. I found this interesting guide on the subject:

http://www.centos.org/docs/2/rhl-rg-en-7.2/s1-users-groups-private-groups.html

Which suggests doing the following to make the permissions sticky as well as adding the users all to a common group:

chown nobody:users /home/common
chmod 2775 /home/common
usermod -a -G users user1

You may want to change the umask setting to allow all files created to be modifiable by the anyone in the users group in that directory, edit /etc/profile and go to the bottom and change umask 022 to umask 002 This is considered secure since all users have their own primary user and really only effects shared directories like this one you want to make.

Let us know if it works well enough.

Ubuntu – How to define completely new xdg-user-dirs

You can add the lines you suggested, but it won't have any effect. Software needs to be programmed to read those environment variables, and I doubt that Ubuntu One reads XDG_UBUNTUONE_DIR, or that Dropbox reads XDG_DROPBOX_DIR.

You can, however, specify icons for folders using Nautilus. This used to be a built-in feature of Nautilus, but for the newer versions, you have to install an add-on. See: Is there any tweak to bring back emblems in Nautilus?

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – How to change the default location of content directories (eg Pictures, Templates, Music) in the home folder

Ubuntu – How to define completely new xdg-user-dirs

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