SimpleXDG

SimpleXDG is a no-frills Ruby class implementing the XDG Base Directory Specification. This spech defines where certain user-specific application files, such as configuration, cache, and saved state, should live on the user's file system. It specifies environment variables that contain this information, and defaults that should be used if those environment variables are unset. The spec itself is at https://specifications.freedesktop.org/basedir/latest/

Getting started

Install SimpleXDG via the simple_xdg gem.

% gem install simple_xdg

or add it to your Gemfile:

gem "simple_xdg"

To use the service, instantiate SimpleXDG, and call methods to obtain the directory paths:

require "simple_xdg"
xdg = SimpleXDG.new
my_config_file_path = xdg.lookup_config("my_app_config.toml")

Contributing

Development is done in GitHub at https://github.com/dazuma/simple_xdg.

• To file issues: https://github.com/dazuma/simple_xdg/issues.
• For questions and discussion, please do not file an issue. Instead, use the discussions feature: https://github.com/dazuma/simple_xdg/discussions.
• Pull requests are welcome, but in general please open an issue first before contributing significant changes.

The library uses toys for testing and CI. To run the test suite, gem install toys and then run toys ci. You can also run unit tests, rubocop, and build tests independently.

License

Copyright 2026 Daniel Azuma

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.