Who is creating Documents/Video/Pictures/etc. in home directory

homexdgxdg-user-dirs

I had Ubuntu-14.04 installed in a minimum configuration, i.e. with no X Windows support. Later I added x-server packages for my card, and a lightweight WindowManager (I don't want KDE or GNOME), so I normally launch X with startx, however someone keeps on creating Documents, Desktop, Download, Video, Music etc. directories in my $HOME. I thought this isually done by "advanced" desktop environments. What application/daemon can be behind this anyways?

Best Answer

This is carried out by the xdg-user-dirs-update1 package.

The file /usr/bin/xdg-user-dirs-update is run at logon and creates the files based on defaults in /etc/xdg/user-dirs.defaults, or if it exists $HOME/.config/user-dirs.dirs.

If you want to disable it, the setting is in /etc/xdg/user-dirs.conf, or uninstall the package, if dependencies allow.


1: The package name above is for Ubuntu. On Fedora and Arch it is xdg-user-dirs.

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