go-app-paths

Lets you retrieve platform-specific paths (like directories for app-data, cache, config, and logs). It is fully compliant with the XDG Base Directory Specification on Unix, but also provides implementations for macOS and Windows systems.

Installation

Make sure you have a working Go environment (Go 1.2 or higher is required). See the install instructions.

To install go-app-paths, simply run:

go get github.com/muesli/go-app-paths

Usage

import gap "github.com/muesli/go-app-paths"

Scopes

You can initialize gap with either the gap.User or gap.System scope to retrieve user- and/or system-specific base directories and paths:

scope := gap.NewScope(gap.User, "app")

Alternatively, you can initialize gap with an additional vendor name:

scope := gap.NewVendorScope(gap.User, "vendor", "app")

This will cause the app directory to be prefixed by a vendor directory in all the following tables.

Directories

DataDirs retrieves a priority-sorted list of data directories:

dirs, err := scope.DataDirs()

Platform	User Scope	System Scope
Unix	["~/.local/share/app", "/usr/local/share/app", "/usr/share/app"]	["/usr/local/share/app", "/usr/share/app"]
macOS	["~/Library/Application Support/app"]	["/Library/Application Support/app"]
Windows	["%LOCALAPPDATA%/app"]	["%PROGRAMDATA%/app"]

---

ConfigDirs retrieves a priority-sorted list of config directories:

dirs, err := scope.ConfigDirs()

Platform	User Scope	System Scope
Unix	["~/.config/app", "/etc/xdg/app", "/etc/app"]	["/etc/xdg/app", "/etc/app"]
macOS	["~/Library/Preferences/app"]	["/Library/Preferences/app"]
Windows	["%LOCALAPPDATA%/app/Config"]	["%PROGRAMDATA%/app/Config"]

---

CacheDir retrieves the app's cache directory:

dir, err := scope.CacheDir()

Platform	User Scope	System Scope
Unix	~/.cache/app	/var/cache/app
macOS	~/Library/Caches/app	/Library/Caches/app
Windows	%LOCALAPPDATA%/app/Cache	%PROGRAMDATA%/app/Cache

Default File Paths

DataPath retrieves the default path for a data file:

path, err := scope.DataPath("filename")

Platform	User Scope	System Scope
Unix	~/.local/share/app/filename	/usr/local/share/app/filename
macOS	~/Library/Application Support/app/filename	/Library/Application Support/app/filename
Windows	%LOCALAPPDATA%/app/filename	%PROGRAMDATA%/app/filename

---

ConfigPath retrieves the default path for a config file:

path, err := scope.ConfigPath("filename.conf")

Platform	User Scope	System Scope
Unix	~/.config/app/filename.conf	/etc/xdg/app/filename.conf
macOS	~/Library/Preferences/app/filename.conf	/Library/Preferences/app/filename.conf
Windows	%LOCALAPPDATA%/app/Config/filename.conf	%PROGRAMDATA%/app/Config/filename.conf

---

LogPath retrieves the default path for a log file:

path, err := scope.LogPath("filename.log")

Platform	User Scope	System Scope
Unix	~/.local/share/app/filename.log	/var/log/app/filename.log
macOS	~/Library/Logs/app/filename.log	/Library/Logs/app/filename.log
Windows	%LOCALAPPDATA%/app/Logs/filename.log	%PROGRAMDATA%/app/Logs/filename.log

Lookup Methods

LookupData retrieves a priority-sorted list of paths for existing data files with the name filename:

path, err := scope.LookupData("filename")

Platform	User Scope	System Scope
Unix	["~/.local/share/app/filename", "/usr/local/share/app/filename", "/usr/share/app/filename"]	["/usr/local/share/app/filename", "/usr/share/app/filename"]
macOS	["~/Library/Application Support/app/filename"]	["/Library/Application Support/app/filename"]
Windows	["%LOCALAPPDATA%/app/filename"]	["%PROGRAMDATA%/app/filename"]

---

LookupConfig retrieves a priority-sorted list of paths for existing config files with the name filename.conf:

path, err := scope.LookupConfig("filename.conf")

Platform	User Scope	System Scope
Unix	["~/.config/app/filename.conf", "/etc/xdg/app/filename.conf", "/etc/app/filename.conf"]	["/etc/xdg/app/filename.conf", "/etc/app/filename.conf"]
macOS	["~/Library/Preferences/app/filename.conf"]	["/Library/Preferences/app/filename.conf"]
Windows	["%LOCALAPPDATA%/app/Config/filename.conf"]	["%PROGRAMDATA%/app/Config/filename.conf"]