Allow changing xdg-user-dirs with environment.etc #67389

jtojnar · 2019-08-24T13:34:11Z

Motivation

Now you will be able to include the following to your configuration.nix to change the default directories:

{
  environment.etc."xdg/user-dirs.defaults".text = ''
    DESKTOP=system/desktop
    DOWNLOAD=downloads
    TEMPLATES=system/templates
    PUBLICSHARE=system/public
    DOCUMENTS=documents
    MUSIC=media/music
    PICTURES=media/photos
    VIDEOS=media/video
  '';
}

Closes #33282

Elaboration

See #33282 (comment) for evolution

XDG_CONFIG_DIRS should contain directories ordered by priority so if we want users to be able to customize the defaults, we need to move the shipped values to the end.

Previously, we were only adding profile-relative paths to XDG_CONFIG_DIRS variable. That required very ugly hacks like NixOS#33282 (comment) to be able to configure XDG stuff. Now, we are prepending the variable with /etc/xdg, allowing us to simply use `environment.etc."xdg/…"` options.

worldofpeace · 2019-08-24T15:51:01Z

nixos/modules/programs/environment.nix

@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ in
        PAGER = mkDefault "less -R";
        EDITOR = mkDefault "nano";
        XCURSOR_PATH = [ "$HOME/.icons" ];
+        XDG_CONFIG_DIRS = [ "/etc/xdg" ]; # needs to be before profile-relative paths to allow changes through environment.etc


Perhaps explain the why as in the directories are ordered by priority.

Does not the need to be first already imply the precedence relation? If you come up with a clearer comment, feel free to change it.

worldofpeace · 2019-08-24T15:51:57Z

Definitely appears to work as expected.

dasj19 · 2019-08-24T16:39:06Z

I don't know if this brings a side-effect to gnome... but I noticed that the bookmarks in nautilus (in the left sidebar in the screenshot) dissappeared. It used to be a bookmark to documents, downloads, pictures, music and video folders...

jtojnar · 2019-08-24T16:48:44Z

Good eye. It appears that the generated file is wrong.

$ cat ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs 
# This file is written by xdg-user-dirs-update
# If you want to change or add directories, just edit the line you're
# interested in. All local changes will be retained on the next run.
# Format is XDG_xxx_DIR="$HOME/yyy", where yyy is a shell-escaped
# homedir-relative path, or XDG_xxx_DIR="/yyy", where /yyy is an
# absolute path. No other format is supported.
# 
XDG_XDG_DESKTOP_DIR_DIR="$HOME/system/desktop"
XDG_XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR_DIR="$HOME/downloads"
XDG_XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR_DIR="$HOME/system/templates"
XDG_XDG_PUBLICSHARE_DIR_DIR="$HOME/system/public"
XDG_XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR_DIR="$HOME/documents"
XDG_XDG_MUSIC_DIR_DIR="$HOME/media/music"
XDG_XDG_PICTURES_DIR_DIR="$HOME/media/photos"
XDG_XDG_VIDEOS_DIR_DIR="$HOME/media/video"

Looking at the preset reveals where the problem is:

$ cat $(nix-build -A xdg-user-dirs)/etc/xdg/user-dirs.defaults
# Default settings for user directories
#
# The values are relative pathnames from the home directory and
# will be translated on a per-path-element basis into the users locale
DESKTOP=Desktop
DOWNLOAD=Downloads
TEMPLATES=Templates
PUBLICSHARE=Public
DOCUMENTS=Documents
MUSIC=Music
PICTURES=Pictures
VIDEOS=Videos
# Another alternative is:
#MUSIC=Documents/Music
#PICTURES=Documents/Pictures
#VIDEOS=Documents/Videos

jtojnar · 2019-08-24T16:56:21Z

With the updated config, everything is as it should be:

It is weird that the wrong defaults file still created the directories, though.

dasj19 · 2019-08-24T16:57:01Z

Yes.. it can be fixed is using the following instead:

  environment.etc."xdg/user-dirs.defaults".text = ''
    DESKTOP=system/desktop
    DOWNLOAD=downloads
    TEMPLATES=system/templates
    PUBLICSHARE=system/public
    DOCUMENTS=documents
    MUSIC=media/music
    PICTURES=media/photos
    VIDEOS=media/video
  '';

dasj19 · 2019-08-24T16:59:22Z

I also tested with localization in place.. and that works too.. the directories get translated into the current interface language

nrdxp · 2019-08-25T02:21:44Z

this may have been merged prematurely. A nixos-rebuild fails unless i revert 4842683

worldofpeace · 2019-08-25T07:01:51Z

Hi @nrdxp.

Could you open a bug showing us the output in nixos-rebuild showing the failure and what nixpkgs revision you are building off? And relevant parts of the configuration.nix would be helpful as well.

nrdxp · 2019-08-26T18:38:18Z

I just rebased a few moments ago to see if the issue was still happening. Here is the output

rev:bfcab9807440410715c0167b408b22faf39b8f9b
error: The unique option `environment.variables.XDG_CONFIG_DIRS' is defined multiple times, in:
-<nixpkgs>/nixos/modules/programs/environment.nix
-<nixpkgs>/nixos/modules/config/shells-environment.nix.

Sorry @worldofpeace, should have done that from the start. I can't seem to find anything in my configuration that changes anything. I will continue to fiddle with it, and if I find the cause I'll file a bug or pr if I can fix it.

edit: never mind, I haven't had time to look at this until now but it looks like I declared XDG_CONFIG_DIRS myself in one of my sessionVariables. I have them defined in multiple places so I didn't notice right away. So sorry for the false positive.

worldofpeace · 2019-08-26T20:14:39Z

@nrdxp Thanks for responding.

jtojnar · 2019-08-26T20:38:21Z

@nrdxp Could you run the following commands and compare output:

$ nixos-option -I nixos-config=/etc/nixos/configuration.nix environment.profileRelativeEnvVars
Value:
{ GTK_PATH = [ "/lib/gtk-2.0" "/lib/gtk-3.0" ]; INFOPATH = [ "/info" "/share/info" ]; KDEDIRS = [ "" ]; LIBEXEC_PATH = [ "/lib/libexec" ]; MOZ_PLUGIN_PATH = [ "/lib/mozilla/plugins" ]; PATH = [ "/bin" ]; QTWEBKIT_PLUGIN_PATH = [ "/lib/mozilla/plugins/" ]; QT_PLUGIN_PATH = [ "/lib/qt4/plugins" "/lib/kde4/plugins" ]; STRIGI_PLUGIN_PATH = [ "/lib/strigi/" ]; TERMINFO_DIRS = [ "/share/terminfo" ]; XCURSOR_PATH = [ "/share/icons" ]; XDG_CONFIG_DIRS = [ "/etc/xdg" ]; XDG_DATA_DIRS = [ "/share" ]; }

Default:


Example:
{ MANPATH = <CODE>; PATH = <CODE>; }

Description:

"Attribute set of environment variable. Each attribute maps to a list\nof relative paths. Each relative path is appended to the each profile\nof <option>environment.profiles</option> to form the content of the\ncorresponding environment variable.\n"

Declared by:
  "/home/jtojnar/Projects/nixpkgs/nixos/modules/config/shells-environment.nix"

Defined by:
  "/home/jtojnar/Projects/nixpkgs/nixos/modules/programs/environment.nix"
  "/home/jtojnar/Projects/nixpkgs/nixos/modules/config/terminfo.nix"
  "/home/jtojnar/Projects/nixpkgs/nixos/modules/config/xdg/icons.nix"

$ nixos-option -I nixos-config=/etc/nixos/configuration.nix environment.variables
Value:
{ EDITOR = "nano"; GIO_EXTRA_MODULES = "/nix/store/zhg3wxraigg0641shcwjlylhalbly2f2-glib-networking-2.60.3/lib/gio/modules:/nix/store/18mwsrq6jibxxialf4gnc8rci8v8vry5-gvfs-1.40.2/lib/gio/modules:/nix/store/096bc8rx25hf08ra16xny5vkyli21958-dconf-0.32.0-lib/lib/gio/modules"; GNOME_SESSION_DEBUG = ""; GTK3_MODULES = "/nix/store/s394svl2s5hqwzgkh1dx238xinfa4fwl-plotinus-0.2.0/lib/libplotinus.so"; LANG = "en_US.UTF-8"; LOCALE_ARCHIVE = "/run/current-system/sw/lib/locale/locale-archive"; NAUTILUS_EXTENSION_DIR = "/nix/store/qqp8a7pmf0xk5pbn93cfj5n7gkd55di2-system-path/lib/nautilus/extensions-3.0"; NIXPKGS_CONFIG = "/etc/nix/nixpkgs-config.nix"; NIX_DEBUG_INFO_DIRS = "/run/current-system/sw/lib/debug"; NIX_GSETTINGS_OVERRIDES_DIR = "/nix/store/aj6sb1k03div0xkysi1dlgjjvvz6iqfv-nixos-gsettings-desktop-schemas/share/gsettings-schemas/nixos-gsettings-overrides/glib-2.0/schemas"; NIX_PATH = "nixpkgs=/home/jtojnar/Projects/nixpkgs"; PAGER = "less -R"; SSH_ASKPASS = "/nix/store/g0z7jv97qz46y4nq2f9lkw70dfmc3s1b-x11-ssh-askpass-1.2.4.1/libexec/x11-ssh-askpass"; TZDIR = "/etc/zoneinfo"; XCURSOR_PATH = "$HOME/.icons"; XDG_CONFIG_DIRS = "/etc/xdg"; XDG_DATA_DIRS = "/nix/store/91r5ws722rq6kvn3hqqlwl323cmsgh2r-gnome-mimeapps/share:/nix/store/s394svl2s5hqwzgkh1dx238xinfa4fwl-plotinus-0.2.0/share/gsettings-schemas/plotinus-0.2.0"; XDG_DESKTOP_PORTAL_PATH = "/nix/store/jvl72xd955hlp6pr6yyrbxs34slaa490-xdg-desktop-portal-gtk-1.4.0/share/xdg-desktop-portal/portals"; }

Default:
{ }

Example:
{ EDITOR = "nvim"; VISUAL = "nvim"; }

Description:

"A set of environment variables used in the global environment.\nThese variables will be set on shell initialisation (e.g. in /etc/profile).\nThe value of each variable can be either a string or a list of\nstrings. The latter is concatenated, interspersed with colon\ncharacters.\n"

Declared by:
  "/home/jtojnar/Projects/nixpkgs/nixos/modules/config/shells-environment.nix"

Defined by:
  "/home/jtojnar/Projects/nixpkgs/nixos/modules/services/x11/desktop-managers/gnome3.nix"
  "/home/jtojnar/Projects/nixpkgs/nixos/modules/services/desktops/gnome3/glib-networking.nix"
  "/home/jtojnar/Projects/nixpkgs/nixos/modules/services/desktops/gvfs.nix"
  "/home/jtojnar/Projects/nixpkgs/nixos/modules/programs/ssh.nix"
  "/home/jtojnar/Projects/nixpkgs/nixos/modules/programs/plotinus.nix"
  "/home/jtojnar/Projects/nixpkgs/nixos/modules/programs/environment.nix"
  "/home/jtojnar/Projects/nixpkgs/nixos/modules/programs/dconf.nix"
  "/home/jtojnar/Projects/nixpkgs/nixos/modules/config/shells-environment.nix"
  "/home/jtojnar/Projects/nixpkgs/nixos/modules/config/xdg/portal.nix"
  "/home/jtojnar/Projects/nixpkgs/nixos/modules/config/debug-info.nix"

$ nixos-option -I nixos-config=/etc/nixos/configuration.nix environment.sessionVariables
Value:
{ LANG = "en_US.UTF-8"; LOCALE_ARCHIVE = "/run/current-system/sw/lib/locale/locale-archive"; NIX_PATH = "nixpkgs=/home/jtojnar/Projects/nixpkgs"; TZDIR = "/etc/zoneinfo"; }

Default:
{ }

Example:


Description:

"A set of environment variables used in the global environment.\nThese variables will be set by PAM.\nThe value of each variable can be either a string or a list of\nstrings. The latter is concatenated, interspersed with colon\ncharacters.\n"

Declared by:
  "/home/jtojnar/Projects/nixpkgs/nixos/modules/config/system-environment.nix"

Defined by:
  "/home/jtojnar/Projects/nixpkgs/nixos/modules/services/misc/nix-daemon.nix"
  "/home/jtojnar/Projects/nixpkgs/nixos/modules/hardware/opengl.nix"
  "/home/jtojnar/Projects/nixpkgs/nixos/modules/config/networking.nix"
  "/home/jtojnar/Projects/nixpkgs/nixos/modules/config/locale.nix"
  "/home/jtojnar/Projects/nixpkgs/nixos/modules/config/i18n.nix"

as of NixOS/nixpkgs#67389, this is declared directly in nixpkgs.

xdg-user-dirs: deprioritize shipped configs

865293c

XDG_CONFIG_DIRS should contain directories ordered by priority so if we want users to be able to customize the defaults, we need to move the shipped values to the end.

jtojnar mentioned this pull request Aug 24, 2019

Provide a way to customize the xdg-user-dirs #33282

Closed

ofborg bot added 10.rebuild-darwin: 1-10 10.rebuild-linux: 1-10 labels Aug 24, 2019

jtojnar changed the title ~~xdg-user-dirs: deprioritize shipped configs~~ Allow changing xdg-user-dirs with environment.etc Aug 24, 2019

jtojnar requested a review from worldofpeace August 24, 2019 14:12

ofborg bot added 6.topic: nixos 8.has: module (update) labels Aug 24, 2019

worldofpeace reviewed Aug 24, 2019

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worldofpeace approved these changes Aug 24, 2019

View reviewed changes

jtojnar merged commit d90aa7d into NixOS:master Aug 24, 2019

jtojnar deleted the xdg-user-dirs branch August 24, 2019 17:22

nrdxp added a commit to nrdxp/nixos that referenced this pull request Aug 29, 2019

XDG_CONFIG_DIRS no longer needs declaration

0738464

as of NixOS/nixpkgs#67389, this is declared directly in nixpkgs.

texastoland mentioned this pull request Jun 4, 2020

Make .zcomp* location configurable sorin-ionescu/prezto#1842

Merged

dasj19 mentioned this pull request Apr 27, 2021

GNOME: 3.38 → 40 #117081

Merged

1 task

jtojnar mentioned this pull request Mar 17, 2023

xdg-user-dirs is currently broken (Freedesktop, NixOS desktop) #221604

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Allow changing xdg-user-dirs with environment.etc #67389

Allow changing xdg-user-dirs with environment.etc #67389

jtojnar commented Aug 24, 2019 •

edited

worldofpeace Aug 24, 2019

jtojnar Aug 24, 2019

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nrdxp commented Aug 25, 2019

worldofpeace commented Aug 25, 2019 •

edited

nrdxp commented Aug 26, 2019 •

edited

worldofpeace commented Aug 26, 2019

jtojnar commented Aug 26, 2019

Allow changing xdg-user-dirs with environment.etc #67389

Allow changing xdg-user-dirs with environment.etc #67389

Conversation

jtojnar commented Aug 24, 2019 • edited

Motivation

Elaboration

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dasj19 commented Aug 24, 2019

nrdxp commented Aug 25, 2019

worldofpeace commented Aug 25, 2019 • edited

nrdxp commented Aug 26, 2019 • edited

worldofpeace commented Aug 26, 2019

jtojnar commented Aug 26, 2019

jtojnar commented Aug 24, 2019 •

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worldofpeace commented Aug 25, 2019 •

edited

nrdxp commented Aug 26, 2019 •

edited