wxPython 4 and the Linux "XDG" paths

wxPython Users
1

Hello list,

According to the freedesktop spec, see link at end, typical user data and config paths should be:

XDG_DATA_HOME = ~/.local/share/
XDG_CONFIG_HOME = ~/.config/

I am testing wxPython 4 in a “venv” (python3 -m venv etc.) wherein I used pip to install wxPython on Ubuntu 16.04. (This is all new to me!)

Looking into wx.StandardPaths, I find:

(test1) donn@ddm:~/…/test1/bin$ python
Python 3.5.2 (default, Nov 23 2017, 16:37:01)

import wx
app=wx.App()
sp=wx.StandardPaths.Get()
sp.GetUserDataDir()
‘/home/donn/.python’
sp.GetConfigDir()
‘/etc’
sp.GetUserLocalDataDir()
‘/home/donn/.python’
sp.GetUserConfigDir()
‘/home/donn’
sp.GetLocalDataDir()
‘/etc/python’

I cannot seem to find the strings that agree with the spec paths.

I tried wxPython’s StandardPaths demo, with no better results.

Is this because I am in this “venv” thing? (I’m a total newb to this.)

It’s rather NB for my app to get the Linux paths right. I need to reach into the ~/.config/fontconfig/ directory – which can’t be a hard-coded string.

Currently, I’m using GLib (the “python-gi” package) to fetch the XDG paths, but that’s another depenency on top of wx.

That’s the story, really. Is there something dumb I’m doing, or neglecting, in order to get correct XDG paths in wxPython?

Thanks!
/d

2

This is a big report/question for the wxWidgets project. WxPython is simply wrapping wxStandardPaths.

In the meantime, it’s trivial in python to access the user’s home for, so you can latch ina solution.

Or look for (or write!) a pure python “StandardPath” package that supports that standard.

-CHB

···

On Jan 25, 2018, at 3:03 AM, Donn Ingle donn.ingle@gmail.com wrote:

Hello list,

According to the freedesktop spec, see link at end, typical user data and config paths should be:

XDG_DATA_HOME = ~/.local/share/
XDG_CONFIG_HOME = ~/.config/

I am testing wxPython 4 in a “venv” (python3 -m venv etc.) wherein I used pip to install wxPython on Ubuntu 16.04. (This is all new to me!)

Looking into wx.StandardPaths, I find:

(test1) donn@ddm:~/…/test1/bin$ python
Python 3.5.2 (default, Nov 23 2017, 16:37:01)

import wx
app=wx.App()
sp=wx.StandardPaths.Get()
sp.GetUserDataDir()
‘/home/donn/.python’
sp.GetConfigDir()
‘/etc’
sp.GetUserLocalDataDir()
‘/home/donn/.python’
sp.GetUserConfigDir()
‘/home/donn’
sp.GetLocalDataDir()
‘/etc/python’

I cannot seem to find the strings that agree with the spec paths.

I tried wxPython’s StandardPaths demo, with no better results.

Is this because I am in this “venv” thing? (I’m a total newb to this.)

It’s rather NB for my app to get the Linux paths right. I need to reach into the ~/.config/fontconfig/ directory – which can’t be a hard-coded string.

Currently, I’m using GLib (the “python-gi” package) to fetch the XDG paths, but that’s another depenency on top of wx.

That’s the story, really. Is there something dumb I’m doing, or neglecting, in order to get correct XDG paths in wxPython?

Thanks!
/d

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3

Donn Ingle wrote:

According to the freedesktop spec, see link at end, typical user data
and config paths should be:

XDG_DATA_HOME = ~/.local/share/
XDG_CONFIG_HOME = ~/.config/

Do you see those values in your environment, if you type "env"? If so,
then why not just use sys.environ['XDG_CONFIG_HOME']? That's what the
base wxWidgets code does:

    wxString homeDir = wxFileName::GetHomeDir\(\);
    wxString configPath;
    if \(wxGetenv\(wxT\("XDG\_CONFIG\_HOME"\)\)\)
        configPath = wxGetenv\(wxT\("XDG\_CONFIG\_HOME"\)\);
    else
        configPath = homeDir \+ wxT\("/\.config"\);

There are several things to remember here.

1. This "spec" is just a recommendation.
2. It is a recommendation of the X Desktop Group, who created X
Windows. It is unrelated to either Linux or to wx.
3. There are lots of recommendations in the Linux world.
4. Those values are only the "typical" values.
5. This recommendation was created long after wxWidgets, which was doing
its own thing before it came out.

I cannot seem to find the strings that agree with the spec paths.
I tried wxPython's StandardPaths demo, with no better results.
Is this because I am in this "venv" thing? (I'm a total newb to this.)

No. It's a "mists of antiquity" thing.

It's rather NB for my app to get the Linux paths right. I need to
reach into the ~/.config/fontconfig/ directory -- which can't be a
hard-coded string.

Why not? That's not really hard-coded, in the sense that it will adapt
itself to the local user because of the "~".

Currently, I'm using GLib (the "python-gi" package) to fetch the XDG
paths, but that's another depenency on top of wx.

That's the story, really. Is there something dumb I'm doing, or
neglecting, in order to get correct XDG paths in wxPython?

No. Your flaw is in thinking that the XDG paths are somehow uniformly
"correct".

The XDG layouts were added to wxWidgets about a year ago. It now
includes an wxStandardPaths::SetFileLayout function to select either the
default file layout or the XDG file layout. I don't know whether that's
been exposed through wxPython or not.

···

--
Tim Roberts, timr@probo.com
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.

4

Small bump to ask whether I should post this StandardPaths question to the dev mailing list rather than users?

/d

···

On 25 January 2018 at 13:03, Donn Ingle donn.ingle@gmail.com wrote:

Hello list,

According to the freedesktop spec, see link at end, typical user data and config paths should be:

XDG_DATA_HOME = ~/.local/share/
XDG_CONFIG_HOME = ~/.config/

I am testing wxPython 4 in a “venv” (python3 -m venv etc.) wherein I used pip to install wxPython on Ubuntu 16.04. (This is all new to me!)

Looking into wx.StandardPaths, I find:

(test1) donn@ddm:~/…/test1/bin$ python
Python 3.5.2 (default, Nov 23 2017, 16:37:01)

import wx
app=wx.App()
sp=wx.StandardPaths.Get()
sp.GetUserDataDir()
‘/home/donn/.python’
sp.GetConfigDir()
‘/etc’
sp.GetUserLocalDataDir()
‘/home/donn/.python’
sp.GetUserConfigDir()
‘/home/donn’
sp.GetLocalDataDir()
‘/etc/python’

I cannot seem to find the strings that agree with the spec paths.

I tried wxPython’s StandardPaths demo, with no better results.

Is this because I am in this “venv” thing? (I’m a total newb to this.)

It’s rather NB for my app to get the Linux paths right. I need to reach into the ~/.config/fontconfig/ directory – which can’t be a hard-coded string.

Currently, I’m using GLib (the “python-gi” package) to fetch the XDG paths, but that’s another depenency on top of wx.

That’s the story, really. Is there something dumb I’m doing, or neglecting, in order to get correct XDG paths in wxPython?

Thanks!
/d

5

Looks like it was added in wx 3.1, so it will need to wait until wxPython 4.1 before it’s available.

···

On Thursday, January 25, 2018 at 10:49:09 AM UTC-8, Tim Roberts wrote:

Donn Ingle wrote:

According to the freedesktop spec, see link at end, typical user data

and config paths should be:

XDG_DATA_HOME = ~/.local/share/

XDG_CONFIG_HOME = ~/.config/

The XDG layouts were added to wxWidgets about a year ago. It now

includes an wxStandardPaths::SetFileLayout function to select either the

default file layout or the XDG file layout. I don’t know whether that’s

been exposed through wxPython or not.

–

Robin Dunn

Software Craftsman

6

No need. XDG paths will automatically be supported in 4.1 in wx.StandardPaths. In the meantime you may want to look for (or create) a python module that gives you the standard paths you need. When you switch to wxPython 4.1 you can then rewrite that module to use wx.StandardPaths instead.

···

On Monday, January 29, 2018 at 12:55:32 AM UTC-8, /d wrote:

Small bump to ask whether I should post this StandardPaths question to the dev mailing list rather than users?

–

Robin Dunn

Software Craftsman

7

$> pip install xdg

Karsten

···

On Mon, Jan 29, 2018 at 09:28:08AM -0800, Robin Dunn wrote:

> Small bump to ask whether I should post this StandardPaths question to the
> dev mailing list rather than users?
>
No need. XDG paths will automatically be supported in 4.1 in
wx.StandardPaths. In the meantime you may want to look for (or create) a
python module that gives you the standard paths you need. When you switch
to wxPython 4.1 you can then rewrite that module to use wx.StandardPaths
instead.

--
GPG key ID E4071346 @ eu.pool.sks-keyservers.net
E167 67FD A291 2BEA 73BD 4537 78B9 A9F9 E407 1346

8

I was thinking that this is a GTK/Gnome thing (The XDG standards) and this would make it a wx problem, not so much wxPython.

Should I wait for a reply here, take it to the wxPython-dev list or go to wxWidgets themselves?

/d

···

On 29 January 2018 at 10:54, Donn Ingle donn.ingle@gmail.com wrote:

Small bump to ask whether I should post this StandardPaths question to the dev mailing list rather than users?

/d

On 25 January 2018 at 13:03, Donn Ingle donn.ingle@gmail.com wrote:

Hello list,

According to the freedesktop spec, see link at end, typical user data and config paths should be:

XDG_DATA_HOME = ~/.local/share/
XDG_CONFIG_HOME = ~/.config/

I am testing wxPython 4 in a “venv” (python3 -m venv etc.) wherein I used pip to install wxPython on Ubuntu 16.04. (This is all new to me!)

Looking into wx.StandardPaths, I find:

(test1) donn@ddm:~/…/test1/bin$ python
Python 3.5.2 (default, Nov 23 2017, 16:37:01)

import wx
app=wx.App()
sp=wx.StandardPaths.Get()
sp.GetUserDataDir()
‘/home/donn/.python’
sp.GetConfigDir()
‘/etc’
sp.GetUserLocalDataDir()
‘/home/donn/.python’
sp.GetUserConfigDir()
‘/home/donn’
sp.GetLocalDataDir()
‘/etc/python’

I cannot seem to find the strings that agree with the spec paths.

I tried wxPython’s StandardPaths demo, with no better results.

Is this because I am in this “venv” thing? (I’m a total newb to this.)

It’s rather NB for my app to get the Linux paths right. I need to reach into the ~/.config/fontconfig/ directory – which can’t be a hard-coded string.

Currently, I’m using GLib (the “python-gi” package) to fetch the XDG paths, but that’s another depenency on top of wx.

That’s the story, really. Is there something dumb I’m doing, or neglecting, in order to get correct XDG paths in wxPython?

Thanks!
/d

9

Donn Ingle wrote:

I was thinking that this is a GTK/Gnome thing (The XDG standards) and
this would make it a wx problem, not so much wxPython.

Should I wait for a reply here, take it to the wxPython-dev list or go
to wxWidgets themselves?

Are you not reading Robin's replies? Robin is the author of wxPython.
His word is golden. The XDG stuff was all added in wxWidgets 3.1, which
is more recent than the current wxPython 4.0. It will be exposed in
wxPython 4.1.

In the meantime, just hardcode it, using some of the examples presented
earlier in the thread.

···

--
Tim Roberts, timr@probo.com
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.

10

Apologies all! For some reason I was not getting notices of replies in my email. I’ve just read all the replies via the Google Groups web page.

I am happy to hear that the XDG stuff is incoming as it’s being urged by projects like Gnome.

I’ll read all the replies again when I can brain. Thanks all.
/d