Table of Contents

Default Locations

If any of the respective XDG environment are specified, the variable will always be returned. Otherwise, the value depends on the operating system.

Inspiration is taken from the Go implementation for Windows and MacOS directories.

Base Directory
Environment Variable Windows macOS Linux/FreeBSD
XDG_DATA_HOME %LOCALAPPDATA% $HOME/Library/Application Support $HOME/.local/share
XDG_CONFIG_HOME %LOCALAPPDATA% $HOME/Library/Application Support $HOME/.config
XDG_STATE_HOME %LOCALAPPDATA% $HOME/Library/Application Support $HOME/.local/state
XDG_BIN_HOME null null $HOME/.local/bin
XDG_DATA_DIRS %APPDATA%:%PROGRAMDATA% /Library/Application Support /usr/local/share:/usr/share
XDG_CONFIG_DIRS %LOCALAPPDATA% $HOME/Library/Preferences:/Library/Application Support:/Library/Preferences /etc/xdg
XDG_CACHE_HOME %LOCALAPPDATA% $HOME/Library/Application Support $HOME/.config
XDG_RUNTIME_HOME %LOCALAPPDATA% $HOME/Library/Application Support /run/user/$UID
User Directory

User directories on Windows use Known Folders.

Environment Variable Windows macOS Linux/FreeBSD
XDG_DESKTOP_DIR Desktop $HOME/Desktop $HOME/Desktop
XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR null $HOME/Downloads $HOME/Downloads
XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR My Documents $HOME/Documents $HOME/Documents
XDG_MUSIC_DIR My Music $HOME/Music $HOME/Music
XDG_PICTURES_DIRS My Pictures $HOME/Pictures $HOME/Pictures
XDG_VIDEOS_DIR My Videos $HOME/Movies $HOME/Videos
XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR Templates $HOME/Templates $HOME/Templates
XDG_PUBLICSHARE_DIR %PUBLIC% $HOME/Public $HOME/Public
Extra Directories
Windows macOS Linux/FreeBSD
Home %USERPROFILE% $HOME $HOME
Applications Programs, Common Programs /Applications $XDG_DATA_HOME/applications, $HOME/.local/share/applications, /usr/local/share/applications, /usr/share/applications
Fonts %SYSTEMROOT%\Fonts, %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Fonts $HOME/Library/Fonts, /Library/Fonts, /System/Library/Fonts, /Network/Library/Fonts $XDG_DATA_HOME/fonts, $HOME/.fonts, $HOME/.local/share/fonts, /usr/local/share/fonts, /usr/share/fonts