Linux: Unhidden folder created in the Home Directory? Why?

[Fake Squid]

Hey, I'm really glad you've added Zomboid to Steam, and made it available on Linux in the first place! However, one thing that frustrates me is that, upon starting the game for the first time, a folder at the home directory (~/Zomboid) is created. It is commonly frowned upon for Linux programs to automatically create non-hidden folders in the Home directory, as that can easily make organization difficult and clutter up browsing. I, for example, regularly access my "Downloads", "Pictures", "Video", and "Music" folders, and when there are unneccesary folders I'll never use in the way, it takes longer to get to the ones I need.

I (and many other Linux Zomboid players I'm sure) would very much appreciate it if you changed this folder's location to somewhere more discrete than the home directory, or if you simply changed it's name to ".Zomboid" (note the "."), making it easily hideable when not specifically browsing for Zomboid content.

Thanks for reading!

[Fake Squid]

Bumping. I can't be the only Linux player who is frustrated by this >_<

[Gonzo Max]

Not being particularly tech-savvy, especially with Linux, I'll raise this with the dev team and see if I can get an answer for ya :)

[fatty.mcninja]

I haven't managed to get the game launched yet (to be fair, I just started like 30 seconds ago), but an unhidden directory in my home folder would be a pretty big annoyance.

[Hoxer]

No particular reason why it is not hidden. It has always been like that, it probably won't change either.

[Fake Squid]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Hoxer:

No particular reason why it is not hidden. It has always been like that, it probably won't change either.

Well it's currently the only non-important unhidden folder in my home directory, and I know for a fact I'm not the only Linux user who is pissed off by this. Not to mention that it's a VERY easy fix on the devteam's part, so there's no reason NOT to change it (it'd make me and other users happy without negatively affecting the users who don't mind it, who should be used to accessing hidden folders)

[Init]

it would be nice if we could change it in a config file like I was able to change the gamedir to my ~/.config directory in projectzomboid.sh

[Leaf [DG]]

It is a bit annoying, yeah. If the dev team had time to just change the name of the folder to .zomboid that would be nice.

[SteveDeFacto]

The config directory is in a bad location, however, a more pressing concern is that the "joypads" folder within the config directory is improperly named on linux.

When a gamepad is plugged in zomboid creates "Zomboid\joypads" folder in the home directory as it is using a backwards slash instead of a forward slash which is what linux uses.

For every gamepad connected a config file is also created in the home diectory. Example: "Zomboid\joypads\Xbox 360 Wireless Receiver.config"

[Fake Squid]

Początkowo opublikowane przez SteveDeFacto:

The config directory is in a bad location, however, a more pressing concern is that the "joypads" folder within the config directory is improperly named on linux.

When a gamepad is plugged in zomboid creates "Zomboid\joypads" folder in the home directory as it is using a backwards slash instead of a forward slash which is what linux uses.

For every gamepad connected a config file is also created in the home diectory. Example: "Zomboid\joypads\Xbox 360 Wireless Receiver.config"

Sheesh, I dunno who did the linux port for this game, but using backslashes is a pretty bad mistake. I wish the devs would read this thread so they could hear some of this, but so far they've not given any answer. Bumping I guess...

[Herz]

Bump! Still creating the ~/.Zomboid folder.
Would be good if we could choose where to put this folder.

[Axelord1942]

Bumping for glory of Linux Master Race

[nasKo]

What would be an ideal and most comfortable location for it?

[Herz]

Thanks for the quick response, I'll try this solution.

Początkowo opublikowane przez nasKo:

What would be an ideal and most comfortable location for it?

Well, it could be a hidden folder ~/.Zomboid, or maybe inside the steamapps/common folder, but if there's a preoccupation with people that aren't very tech savy like EnigmaGrey said, I think just hiding it in the home folder would be better. Most linux users know about hidden folders anyway.

I'm happy with just being able to change it to whatever directory I want, In my case, inside ~/games, so I agree with what Enigma just said about keeping it configurable by the user.

I think this is important because there's some people who uses the terminal to navigate thru the system, and having a new folder that is not frequently used inside the home directory could cause some unnecessary clutter.

[Tiger]

Sorry about posting on a dead thread, but for anyone wanting to change this, it seems like adding a -Duser.home flag is no longer enough.

For me I had to:

• Add a flag to the steam launch options:

  -cachedir=dir/for/zomboid

• Edit the GAMEDIR variable in the sh script at .../steamapps/common/ProjectZomboid/projectzomboid.sh so that the line was

  GAMEDIR="dir/for/zomboid"

Totally agree that this should be hidden or placed with other games by default though.