---
name: "xdg-user-dir"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "xdg-user-dirs"
version: "0.20-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/xdg-user-dir"
---

# xdg-user-dir(1)

Find an XDG user dir

## NAME

xdg-user-dir - Find an XDG user dir

## SYNOPSIS

**xdg-user-dir** \[NAME\]

## DESCRIPTION

**xdg-user-dir** looks up the current path for one of the special XDG user dirs.

This command expects the name of an XDG user dir as argument. The possible names are:

DESKTOP

DOWNLOAD

TEMPLATES

PUBLICSHARE

DOCUMENTS

MUSIC

PICTURES

VIDEOS

## FILES

The values are looked up in the user-dirs.dirs file. This file is created by the xdg-user-dirs-update utility.

## ENVIRONMENT

The **XDG\_CONFIG\_HOME** environment variable determines where the user-dirs.dirs file is located.

## SEE ALSO

[**xdg-user-dirs-update**(1)](/xdg-user-dirs-update/1.md)

## AUTHOR

**Alexander Larsson** \<alexl@redhat.com\>

Developer