ol.dirs

A 0-dependency implementation of XDG base directories, systemd unit directories, Windows Known Folder paths, and macOS standard directories for Clojure, ClojureScript, and ClojureDart.

doc status: maturing Clojars Project

ol.dirs returns string paths or vectors of string paths. It does not create directories, does not check whether they exist, and carries no runtime dependencies.

Support Matrix

Runtime Linux macOS Windows

Clojure

yes

yes

yes

ClojureScript on Node

yes

yes

yes

ClojureDart

yes

yes

yes

Project status: Maturing.

Installation

;; deps.edn
{:deps {com.outskirtslabs/dirs {:mvn/version "0.1.0"}}}

;; Leiningen
[com.outskirtslabs/dirs "0.1.0"]

Quick Start

(require '[ol.dirs :as dirs])

(dirs/config-home)
;; => "/home/alice/.config"

(dirs/config-home "My App")
;; => "/home/alice/.config/my-app"

(dirs/config-home "org" "Acme Corp" "My App")
;; => Linux:   "/home/alice/.config/my-app"
;; => macOS:   "/Users/Alice/Library/Application Support/org.Acme-Corp.My-App"
;; => Windows: "C:\\Users\\Alice\\AppData\\Roaming\\Acme Corp\\My App"

Documentation

API Notes

These functions support app-specific arities. Arity 0 returns the base directory, arity 1 appends an application name, and arity 3 appends a platform-specific qualifier, organization, and application path. The concrete path shapes are shown below in the App Path Rules table and in the example above.

data-home, config-home, state-home, cache-home, runtime-dir, executable-dir, preference-dir, state-dir, and config-dir all support those same arities.

data-dirs and config-dirs do too, but return vectors and append the application path to each search root.

App Path Rules

Form Linux macOS Windows

("My App")

my-app

My-App

My App

("org" "Acme Corp" "My App")

my-app

org.Acme-Corp.My-App

Acme Corp\My App

Base Directories

Function Linux macOS Windows

home-dir

$HOME

$HOME

%USERPROFILE%

data-home

$XDG_DATA_HOME or $HOME/.local/share

$HOME/Library/Application Support

%AppData%

config-home

$XDG_CONFIG_HOME or $HOME/.config

$HOME/Library/Application Support

%AppData%

state-home

$XDG_STATE_HOME or $HOME/.local/state

$HOME/Library/Application Support

%LocalAppData%

cache-home

$XDG_CACHE_HOME or $HOME/.cache

$HOME/Library/Caches

%LocalAppData%

data-dirs

$XDG_DATA_DIRS or /usr/local/share, /usr/share

/Library/Application Support

%ProgramData%

config-dirs

$XDG_CONFIG_DIRS or /etc/xdg

/Library/Application Support

%ProgramData%

preference-dir

same as config-home

$HOME/Library/Preferences

%AppData%

runtime-dir

$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR or nil

nil

nil

executable-dir

$XDG_BIN_HOME or $XDG_DATA_HOME/../bin

nil

nil

On Linux, trusted systemd units can override config-home, state-home, and cache-home via CONFIGURATION_DIRECTORY, STATE_DIRECTORY, and CACHE_DIRECTORY as documented in systemd.exec(5).

User-Facing Directories

Function Linux macOS Windows

audio-dir

XDG_MUSIC_DIR from user-dirs.dirs

$HOME/Music

Music Known Folder

desktop-dir

XDG_DESKTOP_DIR from user-dirs.dirs

$HOME/Desktop

Desktop Known Folder

document-dir

XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR from user-dirs.dirs

$HOME/Documents

Documents Known Folder

download-dir

XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR from user-dirs.dirs

$HOME/Downloads

Downloads Known Folder

font-dir

$XDG_DATA_HOME/fonts

$HOME/Library/Fonts

nil

picture-dir

XDG_PICTURES_DIR from user-dirs.dirs

$HOME/Pictures

Pictures Known Folder

public-dir

XDG_PUBLICSHARE_DIR from user-dirs.dirs

$HOME/Public

Public Known Folder

template-dir

XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR from user-dirs.dirs

nil

Templates Known Folder

video-dir

XDG_VIDEOS_DIR from user-dirs.dirs

$HOME/Movies

Videos Known Folder

Nil Semantics

These functions may return nil by design:

  • runtime-dir and executable-dir on non-Linux platforms

  • font-dir on Windows

  • template-dir on macOS

  • Linux user-facing directories when user-dirs.dirs is missing, unreadable, disabled, or malformed

Development

bb test:clj
bb test:cljs
bb test:cljd
bb test

The CLJD workspace commands live under dart/, because the Dart toolchain emits generated files that are easier to keep isolated there.

License

Copyright © 2026 Casey Link

Distributed under the EUPL-1.2.