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crates.io API documentation

dirs-next

Note: This is a fork of unmaintained dirs crate.

There is a mid-level sister library, directories-next.

Introduction

  • a tiny low-level library with a minimal API
  • that provides the platform-specific, user-accessible locations
  • for retrieving and storing configuration, cache and other data
  • on Linux, Redox, Windows (≥ Vista), macOS and other platforms.

The library provides the location of these directories by leveraging the mechanisms defined by

Platforms

This library is written in Rust, and supports Linux, Redox, macOS and Windows. Other platforms are also supported; they use the Linux conventions.

Minimum Rust version policy

The minimal required version of Rust is 1.34.0.

We may bump the Rust version in major and minor releases (x/y in x.y.z). Changing the Rust version will be written in the CHANGELOG.

Example

Library run by user Alice:

dirs_next::home_dir();
// Lin: Some(/home/alice)
// Win: Some(C:\Users\Alice)
// Mac: Some(/Users/Alice)

dirs_next::audio_dir();
// Lin: Some(/home/alice/Music)
// Win: Some(C:\Users\Alice\Music)
// Mac: Some(/Users/Alice/Music)

dirs_next::config_dir();
// Lin: Some(/home/alice/.config)
// Win: Some(C:\Users\Alice\AppData\Roaming)
// Mac: Some(/Users/Alice/Library/Preferences)

dirs_next::executable_dir();
// Lin: Some(/home/alice/.local/bin)
// Win: None
// Mac: None

Design Goals

  • The dirs-next library is a low-level crate designed to provide the paths to standard directories as defined by operating systems rules or conventions. If your requirements are more complex, e. g. computing cache, config, etc. paths for specific applications or projects, consider using directories-next instead.
  • This library does not create directories or check for their existence. The library only provides information on what the path to a certain directory should be. How this information is used is a decision that developers need to make based on the requirements of each individual application.
  • This library is intentionally focused on providing information on user-writable directories only. There is no discernible benefit in returning a path that points to a user-level, writable directory on one operating system, but a system-level, read-only directory on another, that would outweigh the confusion and unexpected failures such an approach would cause.
    • executable_dir is specified to provide the path to a user-writable directory for binaries.
      As such a directory only commonly exists on Linux, it returns None on macOS and Windows.
    • font_dir is specified to provide the path to a user-writable directory for fonts.
      As such a directory only exists on Linux and macOS, it returns None on Windows.
    • runtime_dir is specified to provide the path to a directory for non-essential runtime data. It is required that this directory is created when the user logs in, is only accessible by the user itself, is deleted when the user logs out, and supports all filesystem features of the operating system.
      As such a directory only commonly exists on Linux, it returns None on macOS and Windows.

Features

If you want to compute the location of cache, config or data directories for your own application or project, use ProjectDirs of the directories-next project instead.

Function name Value on Linux/Redox Value on Windows Value on macOS
home_dir Some($HOME) Some({FOLDERID_Profile}) Some($HOME)
cache_dir Some($XDG_CACHE_HOME) or Some($HOME/.cache) Some({FOLDERID_LocalAppData}) Some($HOME/Library/Caches)
config_dir Some($XDG_CONFIG_HOME) or Some($HOME/.config) Some({FOLDERID_RoamingAppData}) Some($HOME/Library/Preferences)
data_dir Some($XDG_DATA_HOME) or Some($HOME/.local/share) Some({FOLDERID_RoamingAppData}) Some($HOME/Library/Application Support)
data_local_dir Some($XDG_DATA_HOME) or Some($HOME/.local/share) Some({FOLDERID_LocalAppData}) Some($HOME/Library/Application Support)
executable_dir Some($XDG_BIN_HOME/../bin) or Some($XDG_DATA_HOME/../bin) or Some($HOME/.local/bin) None None
runtime_dir Some($XDG_RUNTIME_DIR) or None None None
audio_dir Some(XDG_MUSIC_DIR) or None Some({FOLDERID_Music}) Some($HOME/Music/)
desktop_dir Some(XDG_DESKTOP_DIR) or None Some({FOLDERID_Desktop}) Some($HOME/Desktop/)
document_dir Some(XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR) or None Some({FOLDERID_Documents}) Some($HOME/Documents/)
download_dir Some(XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR) or None Some({FOLDERID_Downloads}) Some($HOME/Downloads/)
font_dir Some($XDG_DATA_HOME/fonts/) or Some($HOME/.local/share/fonts/) None Some($HOME/Library/Fonts/)
picture_dir Some(XDG_PICTURES_DIR) or None Some({FOLDERID_Pictures}) Some($HOME/Pictures/)
public_dir Some(XDG_PUBLICSHARE_DIR) or None Some({FOLDERID_Public}) Some($HOME/Public/)
template_dir Some(XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR) or None Some({FOLDERID_Templates}) None
video_dir Some(XDG_VIDEOS_DIR) or None Some({FOLDERID_Videos}) Some($HOME/Movies/)

Comparison

There are other crates in the Rust ecosystem that try similar or related things. Here is an overview of them, combined with ratings on properties that guided the design of this crate.

Please take this table with a grain of salt: a different crate might very well be more suitable for your specific use case.

Library Status Lin Mac Win Base User Proj Conv
app_dirs Unmaintained ✔ ✔ ✔ 🞈 ✖ ✔ ✖
app_dirs2 Maintained ✔ ✔ ✔ 🞈 ✖ ✔ ✖
dirs-next Developed ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✖ ✔
directories-next Developed ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
s_app_dir Unmaintained? ✔ ✖ 🞈 ✖ ✖ 🞈 ✖
standard_paths Maintained ✔ ✖ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✖
xdg Maintained ✔ ✖ ✖ ✔ ✖ ✔ 🞈
xdg-basedir Unmaintained? ✔ ✖ ✖ ✔ ✖ ✖ 🞈
xdg-rs Obsolete ✔ ✖ ✖ ✔ ✖ ✖ 🞈

Build

It's possible to cross-compile this library if the necessary toolchains are installed with rustup. This is helpful to ensure a change hasn't broken code on a different platform.

The following commands will build this library on Linux, macOS and Windows:

cargo build --target=x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
cargo build --target=x86_64-pc-windows-gnu
cargo build --target=x86_64-apple-darwin
cargo build --target=x86_64-unknown-redox

License

Licensed under either of

at your option.

Contribution

Unless you explicitly state otherwise, any contribution intentionally submitted for inclusion in the work by you, as defined in the Apache-2.0 license, shall be dual licensed as above, without any additional terms or conditions.