[Lazarus] Configuration data in Linux?

[Sven Barth]

Am 28.09.2010 08:24, schrieb Bo Berglund:
> - What is the common way to store config data on Linux?
>    Ini files are probably not used since they are Windowsisms,
>    but is there some other easily used way where one can simply
>    store and retrieve individual values without scanning through
>    a text file?

You can basically use everything you want. If you want your user to edit 
them manually (using a text editor, etc) you should use a text format 
like XML, INI, YAML, JSON, etc.

If you don't need that your user plays around with the config you can 
also use binary formats like a SQLite database (might be overkill of 
course, but the option is there ^^)

> - Where is the agreed location for such data?

As the others already said is the global config in "/etc" or 
"/usr/local/etc" and the per user configuration in his/her home 
directory as a hidden file or directory.

You can look at the following functions from SysUtils to make your life 
easier:

http://www.freepascal.org/docs-html/rtl/sysutils/getappconfigdir.html
http://www.freepascal.org/docs-html/rtl/sysutils/getappconfigfile.html

>
> - And in fact where is the agreed location for the programs
>    themselves?

Normally (there are some distros which differ from this standard) the 
layout is the following:

/etc - the global configuration files (read only by normal users)
/home/XYZ/.bla - the per user configuration files
/usr/bin - the application binary
/usr/share/bla - other shared data (like images, sounds, etc) of your 
application
/usr/docs/bla - the documentation for your application

Please note: "/usr" can also be replaced by "/opt". The difference is 
this: in "/usr" there should be all applications installed by the 
distros package manager while "/opt" contains applications that are 
installed by other means (custom installers, etc).

Please keep in mind that this layout is not necessarily set in stone. 
Some distros take different approaches to it.

Regards,
Sven