ocamlpro/directories

directories is an OCaml library that provides configuration, cache and data paths (and more!) following the suitable conventions on Linux, macOS and Windows. The following conventions are used: XDG Base Directory Specification and xdg-user-dirs on Linux, Known Folders on Windows, Standard Directories on macOS.

directories

directories is an OCaml library that provides configuration, cache and data paths (and more!) following the suitable conventions on Linux, macOS and Windows. It is inspired by similar libraries for other languages such as directories-jvm.

The following conventions are used:

• XDG Base Directory Specification and xdg-user-dirs on Linux
• Known Folders on Windows
• Standard Directories on macOS

On Linux and macOS it has no dependency. On Windows, it depends only on ctypes.

Quickstart

You should depend on directories then :

let () =
  let module App_id = struct
    let qualifier = "com"
    let organization = "YourCompany"
    let application = "yourapp"
  end in
  let module M = Directories.Project_dirs (App_id) in
  let option_value = function None -> "None" | Some v -> v in
  Format.printf "cache dir  = `%s`@." (option_value M.cache_dir);
  Format.printf "config dir = `%s`@." (option_value M.config_dir);
  Format.printf "data dir   = `%s`@." (option_value M.data_dir)

For more, have a look at the example folder.

About

• LICENSE
• CHANGELOG

directories's Issues

Windows config_dir

Is there any reason that the Roaming %AppData% is chosen as the config_dir in the following

directories/src/windows/directories.ml

Lines 36 to 37 in 1cf7211

	(** {FOLDERID_ApplicationData} *)
	let config_dir = get_folderid GUID.ApplicationData

I've commonly seen XDG_CONFIG_HOME mapped to %LocalAppData%, like in https://docs.racket-lang.org/basedir/index.html . Either way makes sense (I'm not objecting), but since I'm evaluating making this package the standard for the DkML Windows distribution (once #14 is addressed) I'd love to understand.

use stubs generation for windows instead of dynamic bindings

improve OS detection

There's an ugly fallback to the linux backend atm.

make sure linux path is used under WSL

See e.g. the corresponding issue in directories-jvm.

generate opam file from dune-project again

I'm not sure if OS constraint are supported now.

use App_id correctly

xdg-user-dirs broken on linux

it's because $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/user-dirs.dirs isn't automatically exported, so we should do something like:

test -f ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-~/.config}/user-dirs.dirs && source ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-~/.config}/user-dirs.dirs
echo ${XDG_DESKTOP_DIR:-$HOME/Desktop}
echo ...

and get all values.

Suggestion: remove ctypes dependency

On Windows, this package depends on Ctypes. A small C binding would be enough to replace its use (only two functions are needed).

In general, it is a pity that this small ligthweight library depends on another library (ctypes) which is several times its size (even if the dependency is only compile-time).

NTDDI_VERSION setting conflicts with _WIN32_WINNT setting

I'm compiling this on Windows using DkML (MSVC distribution):

#=== ERROR while compiling directories.0.5 ====================================#
# context     2.2.0~alpha0~20221228 | win32/x86_64 | conf-withdkml.2 ocaml-system.4.14.0 | pinned(https://github.com/OCamlPro/directories/archive/0.5.tar.gz)
# path        C:\Users\beckf\AppData\Local\opam\playground\.opam-switch\build\directories.0.5
# command     C:\Users\beckf\AppData\Local\Programs\DISKUV~1\bin\WITH-D~1.EXE dune build -p directories -j 11 @install
# exit-code   1
# env-file    C:\Users\beckf\AppData\Local\opam\log\directories-24340-62faa2.env
# output-file C:\Users\beckf\AppData\Local\opam\log\directories-24340-62faa2.out
### output ###
# File "_build/.dune/default/src/windows/bindings/dune", line 37, characters 36-57:
# 37 |  (foreign_stubs (language c) (names win_functions_c_stubs))
#                                          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
# (cd _build/default/src/windows/bindings && "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Community\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.26.28801\bin\HostX64\x64\cl.exe" -nologo -O2 -Gy- -MD -D_CRT_SECURE_NO_DEPRECATE -nologo -O2 -Gy- -MD -I C:/Users/beckf/AppData/Local/Programs/DISKUV~1/lib/ocaml -I C:\Users\beckf\AppData\Local\opam\playground\lib\bigarray-compat -I C:\Users\beckf\AppData\Local\opam\playg[...]
# win_functions_c_stubs.c
# C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\include\10.0.18362.0\shared\sdkddkver.h(291): fatal error C1189: #error:  NTDDI_VERSION setting conflicts with _WIN32_WINNT setting



<><> Error report <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
┌─ The following actions failed
│ λ build directories 0.5
└─
╶─ No changes have been performed

The important detail above is Windows SDK 10.0.18362.

---

I can't make sense of what the code is trying to do with cstubs. I believe

directories/src/windows/bindings/gen_functions.ml

Lines 25 to 29 in 1cf7211

	let () =
	make_functions_stubs
	[ "NTDDI_VERSION", "NTDDI_VISTA" ]
	[ "windows.h"; "shlobj.h" ]
	(module Win_functions_functor.Apply)

is doing the equivalent of:

#define NTDDI_VERSION NTDDI_VISTA

If that is true, then the code is missing the equivalent of:

#define _WIN32_WINNT _WIN32_WINNT_VISTA 

per (sometimes wrong) https://stackoverflow.com/questions/21030230/ntddi-version-setting-conflicts-with-win32-winnt-setting

add support for XDG_STATE_HOME

see https://specifications.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/basedir-spec-latest.html ; it's been introduced in 0.8 ; reported in ocaml-community/utop#362