xdgize

A tool that generates minimal wrapper/shim shell scripts around external commands to "XDG"-ize them.

Usage

$ xdgize COMMAND

This will create the script "$XDG_DATA_HOME"/xdgize/bin/COMMAND with the following content :

#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail
<environment variables>
<pre-exec>
exec -a 'COMMAND' '/path/to/actual/COMMAND' <pre-args> "$@" <post-args>

The output directory, shebang, script options, environment variables, any pre-exec lines, and pre- and post-args on the exec line can all be configured in the main configuration file and COMMAND-specific "rules" files.

The output directory "$XDG_DATA_HOME"/xdgize/bin can be pre-pended to your $PATH in your shell of choice's configuration files, e.g.:

PATH="$XDG_DATA_HOME"/xdgize/bin:$PATH

When COMMAND is run, the shim will run the actual command with any defined environment variables, pre-/post-args, etc.

Caution on sudo usage - sudo inherits the user's $PATH by default. This means sudo COMMAND will run the shim instead of the actual command if the destination directory is pre-pended to your $PATH. This may or may not be the desired behavior. For more information, see the sudoers.5 man page on the secure_path option.

COMMAND-specific rules can be added/modified as needed, and the tool can then (re-)create the shim.

Configuration

The config file "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/xdgize/config is a bash script that is sourced (if it exists). A sample file is included in this repo.

COMMAND-specific rules files in <script location>/rules.d/COMMAND and "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME"/xdgize/rules.d/COMMAND are also sourced bash scripts (if they exist).

From these, you can configure:

• dest - output directory (default: "$XDG_DATA_HOME"/xdgize/bin)
• env - associative array of environment variables
• header - shebang + script options line(s)
• pre_exec - array; any extra lines wanted before the exec line
• pre_args - array; any COMMAND-specific arguments before the "$@" token
• post_args - array; any COMMAND-specific arguments after the "$@" token
• rules_dirs - array; where to find any extra user-supplied rules directories
• out_file, quiet, verbose - flags

A few COMMAND-specific rules are included in this repo. (More to be added.)

Examples

$ xdgize wget

#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail
[[ -z "${WGETRC:-}" ]] && WGETRC="${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-$HOME/.config}"/wgetrc && export WGETRC
exec -a 'wget' '/usr/bin/wget' --hsts-file="${XDG_CACHE_HOME:-$HOME/.cache}"/wget-hsts "$@"

Tested On

• Linux, bash 5.0.x
• Linux, bash 4.3.x

Ideas for Improvement

• Rewrite in higher level language
• Handle the current manual process of moving/renaming existing config files and folders (such as ~/.wgetrc, ~/go, etc.)

Miscellaneous

• You can make your $HOME directory read-only to prevent non-XDG compliant apps from creating files and directories there-- chmod u-w ~

Reference

• XDG Base Directory Spec
• Arch Wiki
• Super User question on sudo and $PATH