A setting to follow XDG Base Directory standard

XDG Base Directory is a standard for locations for storing various
files. Nix has a few files which seem to fit in the standard, but
currently use a custom location directly in the user's ~, polluting
it:

- ~/.nix-profile
- ~/.nix-defexpr
- ~/.nix-channels

This commit adds a config option (use-xdg-base-directories) to follow
the XDG spec and instead use the following locations:

- $XDG_STATE_HOME/nix/profile
- $XDG_STATE_HOME/nix/defexpr
- $XDG_STATE_HOME/nix/channels

If $XDG_STATE_HOME is not set, it is assumed to be ~/.local/state.

Co-authored-by: Théophane Hufschmitt <7226587+thufschmitt@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Tim Fenney <kodekata@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: pasqui23 <pasqui23@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Artturin <Artturin@artturin.com>
Co-authored-by: John Ericson <Ericson2314@Yahoo.com>

1 files changed, 2 insertions, 2 deletions

diff --git a/src/nix-channel/nix-channel.cc b/src/nix-channel/nix-channel.cc
index 263d85eea..338a7d18e 100755
--- a/src/nix-channel/nix-channel.cc
+++ b/src/nix-channel/nix-channel.cc
@@ -164,8 +164,8 @@ static int main_nix_channel(int argc, char ** argv)
     {
         // Figure out the name of the `.nix-channels' file to use
         auto home = getHome();
-        channelsList = home + "/.nix-channels";
-        nixDefExpr = home + "/.nix-defexpr";
+        channelsList = settings.useXDGBaseDirectories ? createNixStateDir() + "/channels" : home + "/.nix-channels";
+        nixDefExpr = settings.useXDGBaseDirectories ? createNixStateDir() + "/defexpr" : home + "/.nix-defexpr";
 
         // Figure out the name of the channels profile.
         profile = profilesDir() + "/channels";