[Aptitude-devel] Bug#894332: aptitude: Please adhere to the full free desktop basedir specifications and support $XDG_CONFIG_HOME

[Bastian Venthur]

Package: aptitude
Version: 0.8.13-7
Followup-For: Bug #894332
X-Debbugs-Cc: venthur at debian.org

Hi,

I support the idea of aptitude using XDG_CONFIG_HOME for its
configuration. Its been a while since this bug has been reported, and
now, a few years later down the line many programs use XDG_CONFIG_HOME
and there's not many programs left that pollute the home directory with
their config files.

I appreciate Axel's concern about moving configuration files around and
want to propose a workflow that might work:

- try to read from the $XDG_CONFIG_HOME location first, and fallback to
  the old location if it does not exist
- in case the old location has been used: migrate config to new location
  and notify users about 
- Eventually deprecate old location

Migration timeline suggestion:

- Version "stable": use migration logic from above. Prefer new location,
  fallback to old, migrate silently or with a warning
- Version "next stable": warn more explicitly
- Version "next next stable": drop support for the old location entirely

I'm not suggesting this "stable" of course, as its too late for that but
the general idea. What do you think?


Cheers,

Bastian


-- Package-specific info:
Terminal: tmux-256color
$DISPLAY is set.
which aptitude: /usr/bin/aptitude

aptitude version information:
aptitude 0.8.13
Compiler: g++ 14.2.0
Compiled against:
  apt version 7.0.0
  NCurses version 6.5
  libsigc++ version: 2.12.1
  Gtk+ support disabled.
  Qt support disabled.

Current library versions:
  NCurses version: ncurses 6.5.20250216
  cwidget version: 0.5.18
  Apt version: 7.0.0

aptitude linkage:
	linux-vdso.so.1 (0x00007f281261e000)
	libapt-pkg.so.7.0 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libapt-pkg.so.7.0 (0x00007f2811c00000)
	libncursesw.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libncursesw.so.6 (0x00007f28125c8000)
	libtinfo.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libtinfo.so.6 (0x00007f2812592000)
	libsigc-2.0.so.0 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libsigc-2.0.so.0 (0x00007f2812589000)
	libcwidget.so.4 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libcwidget.so.4 (0x00007f2812481000)
	libsqlite3.so.0 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libsqlite3.so.0 (0x00007f2811e7f000)
	libboost_iostreams.so.1.83.0 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libboost_iostreams.so.1.83.0 (0x00007f2811be7000)
	libxapian.so.30 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libxapian.so.30 (0x00007f2811800000)
	libstdc++.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6 (0x00007f2811400000)
	libm.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libm.so.6 (0x00007f2811af7000)
	libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x00007f2811aca000)
	libc.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 (0x00007f281120a000)
	libz.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libz.so.1 (0x00007f2811aaa000)
	libbz2.so.1.0 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libbz2.so.1.0 (0x00007f2811a97000)
	liblzma.so.5 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/liblzma.so.5 (0x00007f2811a66000)
	liblz4.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/liblz4.so.1 (0x00007f28117d9000)
	libzstd.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libzstd.so.1 (0x00007f281170f000)
	libudev.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libudev.so.1 (0x00007f28116ca000)
	libsystemd.so.0 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libsystemd.so.0 (0x00007f28110f5000)
	libcrypto.so.3 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libcrypto.so.3 (0x00007f2810a00000)
	libxxhash.so.0 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libxxhash.so.0 (0x00007f28116b7000)
	/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00007f2812620000)
	libuuid.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libuuid.so.1 (0x00007f28116ad000)
	libcap.so.2 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libcap.so.2 (0x00007f28116a1000)

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 13.0
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 6.15-amd64 (SMP w/16 CPU threads; PREEMPT)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE=en_US:en
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
LSM: AppArmor: enabled

Versions of packages aptitude depends on:
ii  aptitude-common           0.8.13-7
ii  libapt-pkg7.0             3.0.3
ii  libboost-iostreams1.83.0  1.83.0-4.2
ii  libc6                     2.41-9
ii  libcwidget4               0.5.18-6+b2
ii  libgcc-s1                 14.2.0-19
ii  libncursesw6              6.5+20250216-2
ii  libsigc++-2.0-0v5         2.12.1-3
ii  libsqlite3-0              3.46.1-6
ii  libstdc++6                14.2.0-19
ii  libtinfo6                 6.5+20250216-2
ii  libxapian30               1.4.29-3

Versions of packages aptitude recommends:
ii  libdpkg-perl    1.22.21
ii  sensible-utils  0.0.25

Versions of packages aptitude suggests:
pn  apt-xapian-index                <none>
pn  aptitude-doc-en | aptitude-doc  <none>
pn  debtags                         <none>
ii  tasksel                         3.81

-- no debconf information