data_dir: Get Normalized Data Directory Path of a Program

In toscm/toscutil: Utility Functions

Get Normalized Data Directory Path of a Program

Description

data_dir returns the absolute, normalized path to the data directory of a program/package/app based on an optional app-specific commandline argument, an optional app-specific environment variable and the XDG Base Directory Specification

Usage

data_dir(
  app_name,
  cl_arg = commandArgs()[grep("--data-dir", commandArgs()) + 1],
  env_var = Sys.getenv(toupper(paste0(app_name, "_DATA_DIR"))),
  create = FALSE,
  sep = "/"
)

Arguments

app_name	Name of the program/package/app
cl_arg	Value of app specific commandline parameter
env_var	Value of app specific environment variable
create	whether to create returned path, if it doesn't exists yet
sep	Path separator to be used on Windows

Details

The following algorithm is used to determine the location of the data directory for application ⁠$app_name⁠:

1. If parameter ⁠$cl_arg⁠ is a non-empty string, return cl_arg

2. Else, if parameter ⁠$env_var⁠ is a non-empty string, return ⁠$env_var⁠

3. Else, if environment variable (EV) ⁠$XDG_DATA_HOME⁠ exists, return ⁠$XDG_DATA_HOME/$app_name⁠

4. Else, if EV ⁠$HOME⁠ exists, return ⁠$HOME/.local/share/$app_name⁠

5. Else, if EV ⁠$USERPROFILE⁠ exists, return ⁠$USERPROFILE/.local/share/$app_name⁠

6. Else, return ⁠$WD/.local/share⁠

Value

Normalized path to the data directory of ⁠$app_name⁠.

See Also

config_dir(), xdg_data_home()

Examples

data_dir("myApp")

toscm/toscutil documentation built on Feb. 23, 2025, 2:20 p.m.