redhat-developer / redhat-developer/vscode-redhat-telemetry
Respect XDG Base Directory Specification
Nobody has claimed this yet.
- Dominant language
- TypeScript
- Stars
- 31
- Forks
- 39
- Avg merge
- 9h 15m
- Merged PRs (30d)
- 1
Description
On Linux, the Red Hat telemetry functionality creates the .redhat directory in the home directory. Most importantly, this directory contains anonymousId; see USAGE_DATA.md and https://github.com/redhat-developer/vscode-redhat-telemetry/blob/d5737dc1096f8220c2e10287e774f4dec3be45b5/src/node/fileSystemIdManager.ts#L46
This unfortunately adds to the problem of the home directory filling up with hidden dotfiles. As a better way of organizing the home directory, the XDG Base Directory Specification is widely used.
For those of us who value a clean home directory, I hope you can consider a few options:
- Creating the
redhatdirectory relative to an appropriate XDG Base Directory, if specified in the user environment; - Providing users with the option to explicitly specify the location of the
redhatdirectory using a dedicated environment variable
Changing this would affect more projects, including but not limited to:
- Quarkus adds some additional files to the
.redhatdirectory. See https://quarkus.io/guides/build-analytics. - Needs changes in the Java telemetry project too; see https://github.com/redhat-developer/intellij-redhat-telemetry/issues/84.
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Start with src/node/fileSystemIdManager.ts at the referenced location and review USAGE_DATA.md alongside the XDG Base Directory Specification. Define which XDG location or dedicated environment variable should control the redhat directory, then confirm the Linux telemetry behavior and related documentation reflect the decided approach.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- typescript
- Domain
- tooling
- Issue type
- Feature
- Difficulty
- 5/5
- Estimated time
- Over a week
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Needs clarification
- Newbie friendliness
- 30/100