XDG-USER-DIR

By WillieJune 22, 2026Updated:June 22, 2026No Comments1 Min Read

NAME

xdg-user-dir – Find an XDG user dir

SYNOPSIS

xdg-user-dir [NAME]

DESCRIPTION

xdg-user-dir

looks up the current path for one of the special XDG user dirs.

This command expects the name of an XDG user dir as argument. The possible names are:

: DESKTOP

: DOWNLOAD

: TEMPLATES

: PUBLICSHARE

: DOCUMENTS

: MUSIC

: PICTURES

: VIDEOS

FILES

The values are looked up in the user-dirs.dir file. This file is created by the xdg-user-dirs-update utility.

ENVIRONMENT

The XDG_CONFIG_HOME environment variable determines where the user-dirs.dirs file is located.

Willie

Willie has over 15 years of experience in Linux system administration and DevOps. After managing infrastructure for startups and enterprises alike, he founded Command Linux to share the practical knowledge he wished he had when starting out. He oversees content strategy and contributes guides on server management, automation, and security.