INTERACT FORUM
More => Old Versions => JRiver Media Center 21 for Linux => Topic started by: Awesome Donkey on February 03, 2016, 01:56:29 pm
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Currently MC will create folders for images and videos in the HOME directory, named Images and Video. This is not an issue for music, as MC will use the existing Music folder.
The problem with this is, on the distros I've used there exists already directories for images and videos, named Pictures and Videos.
Here's a screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/EWvSXyc.png
This is my request: Detect whether existing folders for Pictures and Videos exist and if so, use them. If they don't exist, create Images and Video.
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Currently MC will create folders for images and videos in the HOME directory, named Images and Video. This is not an issue for music, as MC will use the existing Music folder.
The problem with this is, on the distros I've used there exists already directories for images and videos, named Pictures and Videos.
Here's a screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/EWvSXyc.png
This is my request: Detect whether existing folders for Pictures and Videos exist and if so, use them. If they don't exist, create Images and Video.
Likely a good idea though I don't think those directory names are standardized. Isn't that desktop specific?
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They *shouldn't* be, since I can install multiple DMs and they seem to use the same directories in HOME.
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The "special" directories typically use the same nomenclature in the big DEs (Gnome, Unity, XFCE, and I think KDE), but the reason that's the case is that there is a more or less standard way of registering the "special" directories in the user configuration files using the xdg spec:
See https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xdg_user_directories and https://freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/xdg-user-dirs/
Gnome, Cinnamon, XFCE, and KDE (to my knowledge) just query the xdg config files and use what's there for system operations. I know this for a fact with Gnome and XFCE, because I had to recreate the directories on a few systems after an accident. Just creating a directory with the proper name won't get a DE to treat the directories as "special" (i.e. save appropriate files there by default, index them, etc.), they need to be specified in the xdg config file in order to receive special treatment.
So it seems like having JRiver read the xdg config files (where available) and using those directories would be the standards-compliant way to do it, and would catch the majority of desktop environments. It would also handle corner cases where the directory names differ from the defaults for whatever reason (distro customization or user manual config changes). Xdg even supplies a utility to handle the queries (detailed in the arch wiki link above). Xdg is also how most DEs auto-handle localization for those directories, so it would be a potential labor saver for JRiver as well (no need to translate the directory names, etc.).
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i agree with the request of Awesome Donkey. The name of the directory is also dependent on the localization. All distros place by default in German following directories:
My /home/hans/.config/user-dirs.dirs:
XDG_DESKTOP_DIR = "$ HOME / desk"
XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR = "$ HOME / Downloads"
XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR = "$ HOME / Templates"
XDG_PUBLICSHARE_DIR = "$ HOME / Public"
XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR = "$ HOME / Documents"
XDG_MUSIC_DIR = "$ HOME / Music"
XDG_PICTURES_DIR = "$ HOME / Images"
XDG_VIDEOS_DIR = "$ HOME / videos" [/ code]
This has the consequence that also the Music folder is duplicated as Music of JRiver.
so i have following JRiver - directories:
/ Home / hans / Documents besides / home / hans / Documents
/ Home / hans / video next to / home / hans / Videos
/ Home / hans / Music besides / home / hans / Music
/ Home / hans / Images next / home / hans / Images
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upppss- I see now that I have made a mistake during the copy and paste. correct is:
XDG_DESKTOP_DIR="$HOME/Schreibtisch"
XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR="$HOME/Downloads"
XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR="$HOME/Vorlagen"
XDG_PUBLICSHARE_DIR="$HOME/Öffentlich"
XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR="$HOME/Dokumente"
XDG_MUSIC_DIR="$HOME/Musik"
XDG_PICTURES_DIR="$HOME/Bilder"
XDG_VIDEOS_DIR="$HOME/Videos"
/ home / hans / Dokumente besides / home / hans / Documents
/ home / hans / Videos besides / home / hans / Video
/ home / hans / Musik besides / home / hans / Music
/ home / hans / Bilder besides / home / hans / Images
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Seems like it would be enough to simply read the XDG environment variables and use those unless they are undefined.
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Seems like it would be enough to simply read the XDG environment variables and use those unless they are undefined.
If by "read the XDG environment variables" you mean calling xdg-user-dir, that would work, but just looking for conventional shell environment variables likely would not. My default "env" doesn't include all the XDG directories on every DE so trying to pluck them out of the default shell environment would not work for many cases. However, xdg-user-dir always returns the correct answers when called. I just wanted to be sure, because the shell environment does sometimes get the XDG directories exported to it, but not reliably.