wx.StandardPaths

Inheritance diagram for wx.StandardPaths:



Description

wx.StandardPaths returns the standard locations in the file system and should be used by applications to find their data files in a portable way.

In the description of the methods below, the example return values are given for the Unix, Windows and Mac OS X systems, however please note that these are just the examples and the actual values may differ. For example, under Windows: the system administrator may change the standard directories locations, i.e. the Windows directory may be named W:\Win2003 instead of the default C:\Windows.

The strings appname and username should be replaced with the value returned by wx.App.GetAppName and the name of the currently logged in user, respectively. The string prefix is only used under Unix and is /usr/local by default but may be changed using SetInstallPrefix.

The directories returned by the methods of this class may or may not exist. If they don’t exist, it’s up to the caller to create them, wx.StandardPaths doesn’t do it.

Note

Finally note that these functions only work with standardly packaged applications. I.e. under Unix you should follow the standard installation conventions and under Mac you should create your application bundle according to the Apple guidelines. Again, this class doesn’t help you to do it.

This class is MT-safe: its methods may be called concurrently from different threads without additional locking.

Note

Note that you don’t allocate an instance of class wx.StandardPaths, but retrieve the global standard paths object using wx.StandardPaths.Get on which you call the desired methods.

Class API

Methods

__init__()
No docstrings available for this method.

Get()

Returns reference to the unique global standard paths object.


Returns:

wx.StandardPaths


GetConfigDir()

Return the directory containing the system config files.

Example return values:

  • Unix: /etc
  • Windows: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data
  • Mac: /Library/Preferences

Returns:

string

See also

wx.FileConfig


GetDataDir()

Return the location of the applications global, i.e. not user-specific, data files.

Example return values:

  • Unix: *prefix*/share/*appname*
  • Windows: the directory where the executable file is located
  • Mac: *appname*.app/Contents/SharedSupport bundle subdirectory

Returns:

string

See also

GetLocalDataDir


GetDocumentsDir()

Return the directory containing the current user’s documents.

Example return values:

  • Unix: ~ (the home directory)
  • Windows: C:\Documents and Settings\*username*\Documents
  • Mac: ~/Documents

This function is new since wxWidgets version 2.7.0


Returns:

string


GetExecutablePath()

Return the directory and the filename for the current executable.

Example return values:

  • Unix: /usr/local/bin/exename
  • Windows: C:\Programs\AppFolder\exename.exe
  • Mac: /Programs/exename

Returns:

string


GetInstallPrefix()

Return the program installation prefix, e.g. /usr, /opt or /home/zeitlin.

If the prefix had been previously by SetInstallPrefix, returns that value, otherwise tries to determine it automatically (Linux only right now) and finally returns the default /usr/local value if it failed.


Returns:

string

Note

This function is only available under Unix.


GetLocalDataDir()

Return the location for application data files which are host-specific and can’t, or shouldn’t, be shared with the other machines.

This is the same as GetDataDir except under Unix where it returns /etc/*appname*.


Returns:

string


GetLocalizedResourcesDir(lang, category=int)

Return the localized resources directory containing the resource files of the specified category for the given language.

In general this is just the same as lang subdirectory of GetResourcesDir (or *lang*.lproj under Mac OS X) but is something quite different for message catalog category under Unix where it returns the standard *prefix*/share/locale/*lang*/LC_MESSAGES directory.

This function is new since wxWidgets version 2.7.0

Parameters:

  • lang (string)
  • category (int)

Returns:

string


GetPluginsDir()

Return the directory where the loadable modules (plugins) live.

Example return values:

  • Unix: *prefix*/lib/*appname*
  • Windows: the directory of the executable file
  • Mac: *appname*.app/Contents/PlugIns bundle subdirectory

Returns:

string


GetResourcesDir()

Return the directory where the application resource files are located. The resources are the auxiliary data files needed for the application to run and include, for example, image and sound files it might use.

This function is the same as GetDataDir for all platforms except Mac OS X.

Example return values:

  • Unix: *prefix*/share/*appname*
  • Windows: the directory where the executable file is located
  • Mac: *appname*.app/Contents/Resources bundle subdirectory

This function is new since wxWidgets version 2.7.0


Returns:

string


GetTempDir()

Return the directory for storing temporary files.

This function is new since wxWidgets version 2.7.2


Returns:

string


GetUserConfigDir()

Return the directory for the user config files:

  • Unix: ~ (the home directory)
  • Windows: C:\Documents and Settings\*username*\Application Data
  • Mac: ~/Library/Preferences

Only use this method if you have a single configuration file to put in this directory, otherwise GetUserDataDir is more appropriate.


Returns:

string


GetUserDataDir()

Return the directory for the user-dependent application data files:

  • Unix: ~/.*appname*
  • Windows: C:\Documents and Settings\*username*\Application Data\*appname*
  • Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/*appname*

Returns:

string


GetUserLocalDataDir()

Return the directory for user data files which shouldn’t be shared with the other machines.

This is the same as GetUserDataDir for all platforms except Windows where it returns C:\Documents and Settings\*username*\Local Settings\Application Data\*appname*


Returns:

string


SetInstallPrefix(prefix)

Lets wx.StandardPaths know about the real program installation prefix on a Unix system. By default, the value returned by GetInstallPrefix is used.

Although under Linux systems the program prefix may usually be determined automatically, portable programs should call this function.

Parameters:

  • prefix (string)

Note

This function is only available under Unix.