File::UserDirs(3) User Contributed Perl Documentation File::UserDirs(3)

File::UserDirs - Find extra media and documents directories

version 0.09

use File::UserDirs qw(:all);
print xdg_desktop_dir; # e.g. /home/user/Desktop

This module can be used to find directories as informally specified by the Freedesktop.org xdg-user-dirs software. This gives a mechanism to locate extra directories for media and documents files.

May be exported on request. Also the group ":all" is defined which exports all methods.

my $dir = xdg_desktop_dir;

Returns the desktop directory. Unless changed by the user, this is the directory Desktop in the home directory.

my $dir = xdg_documents_dir;

Returns the documents directory. Unless changed by the user, this is the home directory.

my $dir = xdg_download_dir;

Returns the download directory. Unless changed by the user, this is the home directory.

my $dir = xdg_music_dir;

Returns the music directory. Unless changed by the user, this is the home directory.

my $dir = xdg_pictures_dir;

Returns the pictures directory. Unless changed by the user, this is the home directory.

my $dir = xdg_publicshare_dir;

Returns the public share directory. Unless changed by the user, this is the home directory.

my $dir = xdg_templates_dir;

Returns the templates directory. Unless changed by the user, this is the home directory.

my $dir = xdg_videos_dir;

Returns the videos directory. Unless changed by the user, this is the home directory.

""xdg-user-dir" failed to start: %s"
The executable "xdg-user-dir" could not be run, most likely because it was not installed. See "DEPENDENCIES".

The location of the directories can be specified by the user in the file $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/user-dirs.dirs. It is a shell file setting a number of environment variables. To find the exact pathname from Perl, run:

use File::BaseDir qw(config_home);
print config_home('user-dirs.dirs');

XDG_DESKTOP_DIR="$HOME/Workspace"
XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR="$HOME/Files"
XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR="$HOME/Files/Downloads"
XDG_MUSIC_DIR="$HOME/Files/Audio"
XDG_PICTURES_DIR="$HOME/Files/Images"
XDG_PUBLICSHARE_DIR="$HOME/public_html"
XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR="$HOME/Files/Document templates"
XDG_VIDEOS_DIR="$HOME/Files/Video"

This module requires the executable xdg-user-dir from the package "xdg-user-dirs". Source code is available from http://cgit.freedesktop.org/xdg/xdg-user-dirs/.

  • Jaap Karssenberg || Pardus [Larus] <pardus@cpan.org>
  • Graham Ollis <plicease@cpan.org>

This software is copyright (c) 2003-2021 by Jaap Karssenberg || Pardus [Larus] <pardus@cpan.org>.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.

2023-07-25 perl v5.38.0