User Commands xdg-user-dirs-update(1)
NAME
xdg-user-dirs-update - Create and configure default desktop
user directories.SYNOPSIS
xdg-user-dirs-update [--force] [--dummy-output path] [--set
DIR path]DESCRIPTION
xdg-user-dirs-update is used to create the default desktop
user directories such as : Desktop Download Templates Public Documents Music Pictures Videos In general this is run at user login to an XDG compatible desktop such as GNOME or KDE. The directories are createdusing the user's locale - and this information is then
stored in the ${HOME}/.config/user-dirs.dirs file such that
if the user then changes the locale they log in as, the directories will still be referenced correctly, but willremain in the original locale unless you run the xdg-user-
dirs-update command with the --force option.
The default names used to create these directories are con-
figured in the system configuration file /etc/xdg/user-
dirs.defaults.Other configuration is stored in the file /etc/xdg/user-
dirs.conf. In this file you can disable this functionalitysystem-wide and define what encoding is used in the creation
of the directories. By default this is UTF-8 since this is
the main encoding used in the desktops.Continuous monitoring is done by the file manager - nautilus
in GNOME - and if these directories are renamed or removed
nautilus will update the user's configuration file to reflect this change. OPTIONS--force
Force an update of the directories to the current locale.SunOS 5.11 Last change: 03 Apr 2008 1
User Commands xdg-user-dirs-update(1)
--dummy-output path
Simulate the creation of the user configuration file and write to the specified path.--set DIR path
Update the user's configuration changing the DIR to point to the specified path. Valid desktop directories (DIR) are: DESKTOP DOWNLOAD TEMPLATES PUBLICSHARE DOCUMENTS MUSIC PICTURES VIDEOS FILES The following files are used by this application:/usr/bin/xdg-user-dirs-update
XDG User Directory management utility./etc/xdg/user-dirs.conf
Used to configure the operation of xdg-user-dirs-update.
Can be used to totally disable the the creation of these directories and also to define what locale encodingshould be used by default - by default this is UTF-8
which is the preferred encoding used by the GNOME Vir-
tual File System layer./etc/xdg/user-dirs.defaults
Used to configure the default locations that xdg-user-
dirs-update will create/manage relative to the user's
${HOME}.
SunOS 5.11 Last change: 03 Apr 2008 2
User Commands xdg-user-dirs-update(1)
${HOME}/.config/user-dirs.dirs
Location of the user-specific configuration including
the current list of directories and what they map to.${HOME}/.config/user-dirs.locale
Contains the name of the locale (excluding encoding) that was used to create the initial set of directories.EXAMPLES
Example 1: Determine what may happen if you force an update.% xdg-user-dirs-update --force --dummy-output /tmp/dummy.out
Moving DOWNLOAD directory from Downloads to Download Also will write output like the following to /tmp/dummy.out:# This file is written by xdg-user-dirs-update
# If you want to change or add directories, just edit the line you're
# interested in. All local changes will be retained on the next run
# Format is XDG_xxx_DIR="$HOME/yyy", where yyy is a shell-escaped
# homedir-relative path, or XDG_xxx_DIR="/yyy", where /yyy is an
# absolute path. No other format is supported.
#
XDG_DESKTOP_DIR="$HOME/Desktop"
XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR="$HOME/Download"
XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR="$HOME/Templates"
XDG_PUBLICSHARE_DIR="$HOME/Public"
XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR="$HOME/Documents"
XDG_MUSIC_DIR="$HOME/Music"
XDG_PICTURES_DIR="$HOME/Pictures"
XDG_VIDEOS_DIR="$HOME/Videos"
Example 2: Change location of my pictures.% xdg-user-dirs-update --set PICTURES \
/home/user/Documents/MyPictures
Modifies the ${HOME}/.config/user-dirs.dirs file to have the
line: ...XDG_PICTURES_DIR="$HOME/Documents/MyPictures"
...SunOS 5.11 Last change: 03 Apr 2008 3
User Commands xdg-user-dirs-update(1)
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attri-
butes:____________________________________________________________
| ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
|_____________________________|_____________________________|
| Availability | library/xdg/xdg-user-dirs |
|_____________________________|_____________________________|
| Interface stability | Uncommitted ||_____________________________|_____________________________|
SEE ALSO
More information can be found at:http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/xdg-user-dirs
xdg-user-dirs-gtk-update(1), xdg-user-dir(1), attributes(5)
NOTES Written by Darren Kenny, Sun Microsystems Inc, 2008SunOS 5.11 Last change: 03 Apr 2008 4