freedesktop.org

freedesktop.org (fd.o), formerly X Desktop Group (XDG),[1][2] is a project to work on interoperability and shared base technology for free-software desktop environments for the X Window System (X11) and Wayland on Linux and other Unix-like operating systems. It was founded by Havoc Pennington, a GNOME developer working for Red Hat in March 2000. Some of the project's servers are hosted by Portland State University, sponsored by Hewlett-Packard, Intel, and Google.[3]

"XDG" redirects here. For the game development division External Development Group, see THQ.
freedesktop.org
Type of site
Software development management system
Available inEnglish
Created byHavoc Pennington
URLwww.freedesktop.org/wiki/
CommercialNo
LaunchedMarch 2000 (2000-03)
Current statusOnline

Widely used open-source X-based desktop projects, such as GNOME, KDE's Plasma Desktop, and Xfce, are collaborating with the freedesktop.org project. In 2006, the project released Portland 1.0 (xdg-utils), a set of common interfaces for desktop environments.[4] However, freedesktop.org is a "collaboration zone" for standards and specifications where users can freely discuss ideas, and not a formal standards organization.[5]

freedesktop.org joined the X.Org Foundation in 2019.[6]

Hosted projects

freedesktop.org provides hosting for a number of relevant projects.[7][8] These include:

Windowing system and graphics

Software related to windowing systems and graphics in general

Other

Also, Avahi (a free Zeroconf implementation) started as a fd.o project but has since become a separate project.

Base Directory Specification
See also: Filesystem Hierarchy Standard

XDG Base Directory Specification (XDG BDS) introduces a range of variables where user-specific files used by programs should be found.[13] Many tools and applications utilize these variables by default.[14]

User directories

Besides the variables mentioned below, XDG BDS also specifies that users' local binary files may be installed into $HOME/.local/bin. Systems compliant with the spec are expected to make this directory available in their CLI's PATH environment variable.[13]

XDG_DATA_HOME
For user application's own data files
Default to $HOME/.local/share
XDG_CONFIG_HOME
For user's app configuration files
Default to $HOME/.config
XDG_STATE_HOME
For user-specific app session data, which should be stored for future reuse
Default to $HOME/.local/state
May include logs, recently used files, application-specific information (e.g. window layout, views, opened files, undo history, etc.), akin to session data that should be stored by app by request of system session manager, like X session manager
XDG_CACHE_HOME
For user-specific apps cache files
Default to $HOME/.cache
XDG_RUNTIME_DIR
For user-specific app runtime files like sockets which must not survive reboot and full logout/login cycles

System directories
XDG_DATA_DIRS
Colon-separated list of preference-ordered paths to search for data files in
Default to /usr/local/share/:/usr/share/
XDG_CONFIG_DIRS
The same as above but for config files
Default to /etc/xdg/

Stated aims

The project aims to catch interoperability issues much earlier in the process. It is not for legislating formal standards. Stated goals include:

  • Collect existing specifications, standards, and documents related to X desktop interoperability and make them available in a central location.
  • Promote the development of new specifications and standards to be shared among multiple X desktops.
  • Integrate desktop-specific standards into broader standards efforts, such as Linux Standard Base and the ICCCM.
  • Work on the implementation of these standards in specific X desktops.
  • Serve as a neutral forum for sharing ideas about X desktop technology.
  • Implement technologies that further X desktop interoperability and free X desktops in general.
  • Promote X desktops and X desktop standards to application authors, both commercial and volunteer.
  • Communicate with the developers of free operating system kernels, the X Window System itself, free OS distributions, and so on to address desktop-related problems.
  • Provide source repositories (git[15] and CVS[16]), web hosting, Bugzilla, mailing lists, and other resources to free software projects that work toward the above goals.

See also

References
  1. "X desktop group".
  2. "Freedesktop.org, home of the X Desktop Group". Archived from the original on 2001-02-02. Retrieved 2013-08-26.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  3. "Freedesktop". Freedesktop.org. Retrieved 27 April 2017.
  4. Portland points desktop Linux at $10 billion market Archived October 12, 2006, at the Wayback Machine, DesktopLinux.com, 11 October 2006
  5. "Freedesktop". Freedesktop.org. Retrieved 27 April 2017.
  6. "X.Org To Join Forces With FreeDesktop.org While Foundation Elections Hit A Snag". Retrieved 9 September 2021.
  7. "FreedesktopProjects". freedesktop.org. Retrieved 2013-09-22.
  8. "Software". freedesktop.org. Retrieved 2013-09-22.
  9. "Glamor". freedesktop.org. 17 May 2013. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
  10. "Pixman". pixman.org.
  11. Wallen, Jack (6 December 2011). "DIY: Get top-quality open source security tools in one distro". News, Tips, and Advice for Technology Professionals. Retrieved 2019-06-21.
  12. "[ANNOUNCE] libinput 0.4.0". freedesktop.org. 2014-06-24.
  13. XDG Base Directory Specification, freedesktop.org, accessed: 2021-05-15.
  14. "XDG Base Directory - ArchWiki". wiki.archlinux.org. Retrieved 2021-10-08.
  15. "freedesktop.org git". Gitweb.freedesktop.org. Retrieved 2013-09-22.
  16. "ViewVC Repository Listing". WebCVS.freedesktop.org. Archived from the original on 2013-10-08. Retrieved 2013-09-22.

Sources
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