platform-dirs-rs

A Rust library for obtaining platform dependent directory paths for application and user directories.

Uses the following standards:

• Linux/*BSD: XDG Base Directories and XDG User Directories
• macOS: Standard Directories
• Windows: Known Folder

Installation

Add the following to your Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]
platform-dirs = "0.3.0"

Examples

Obtaining paths

use platform_dirs::{AppDirs, UserDirs};

fn main() {
    let app_dirs = AppDirs::new(Some("name"), false).unwrap();
    dbg!(&app_dirs);
    // AppDirs {
    //     cache_dir: "/home/cjbassi/.cache/name",
    //     config_dir: "/home/cjbassi/.config/name",
    //     data_dir: "/home/cjbassi/.local/share/name",
    //     state_dir: "/home/cjbassi/.local/state/name"
    // }

    let user_dirs = UserDirs::new().unwrap();
    dbg!(&user_dirs);
    // UserDirs {
    //     desktop_dir: "/home/cjbassi/Desktop",
    //     document_dir: "/home/cjbassi/Documents",
    //     download_dir: "/home/cjbassi/Downloads",
    //     music_dir: "/home/cjbassi/Music",
    //     picture_dir: "/home/cjbassi/Pictures",
    //     public_dir: "/home/cjbassi/Public",
    //     video_dir: "/home/cjbassi/Videos"
    // }
}

Opening config file

use std::fs::{self, File};

use platform_dirs::AppDirs;

fn main() {
    let app_dirs = AppDirs::new(Some("name"), true).unwrap();
    let config_file_path = app_dirs.config_dir.join("config-file");

    fs::create_dir_all(&app_dirs.config_dir).unwrap();

    let file = if config_file_path.exists() {
        File::open(config_file_path).unwrap()
    } else {
        File::create(config_file_path).unwrap()
    };
}

Path list

AppDirs

UserDirs

Comparisons

platform-dirs differs from dirs-rs and directories-rs in several ways:

• allows for using the XDG spec on macOS for CLI apps
• changes the config directory on macOS from Library/Preferences to Library/Application Support
  • Library/Preferences is supposed to be used for macOS unique plist preferences: info
• only includes directories that are cross platform
  • AppDirs:
    • removes data_local_dir
  • UserDirs:
    • removes runtime_dir, executable_dir
• provides a simpler API than directories-rs
  • the fields of UserDirs are no longer Options
  • the struct fields are now publicly accessible
  • combines the ProjectDirs struct into AppDirs
• adds state_dir to AppDirs
  • documentation can be found here at the bottom of the page
  • used for stateful application data like logs, history, etc
• on Linux, returns default platforms values for the UserDirs if they are not set instead of returning None