Don't store command history inside ~/.cache

[haasn]

➡️ First read the guidelines! ⬅️

Version

Version: 1.4.2-131-git-5c5665ef-dirty (git-r3/HEAD)

Configuration

https://0x0.st/sc9d.txt

Launch Command

rofi -show run

Steps to reproduce

• Modify the command history (e.g. by entering a custom command, or affecting the command frequency)
• Delete the contents of ~/.cache

What behaviour you see

• The command history gets reset

What behaviour you expect to see

• The command history gets preserved

Extra notes

~/.cache seems like a poor fit for what's essentially a command history. A better fit, to me, would be ~/.local/share/. Nuking ~/.cache should not drastically modify application functionality - but in rofi, deleting my entire command history impacts my ability to easily start the commands I frequently start.

Applications should be designed to be robust against ~/.cache going away.

[DaveDavenport]

I always found history data non-essentials (and nuke it occasionally). But I can see people relying on it.
It is fine to move it, not sure where though when reading this.

[benoliver999]

It's a tricky one. Perhaps it's worth following in the footsteps of bash and zsh, something like `~/.rofi-history`?

[haasn]

For comparison, gtk stores its “recently used places” files in $XDG_DATA_HOME.

[sudoforge]

Applications should be designed to be robust against ~/.cache going away.

Can you explain your reasoning for this? I don't think applications should purposefully avoid a standard. I also find it frustrating that this "command history" cache exists at all - or at least that it persists across reboots. Commands, once called via rofi, will remain in the rofi history (and thus show up when I use rofi) whether or not they're still valid commands. If we move it away from the cache directory (which is possible to purge on a schedule), there is no way to solve this other than editing the file directly.

[DaveDavenport]

Can you explain your reasoning for this? I don't think applications should purposefully avoid a standard. I also find it frustrating that this "command history" cache exists at all - or at least that it persists across reboots. Commands, once called via rofi, will remain in the rofi history (and thus show up when I use rofi) whether or not they're still valid commands. If we move it away from the cache directory (which is possible to purge on a schedule), there is no way to solve this other than editing the file directly.

@bddenhartog You can disable history in the config file and you can delete (wrong) entries with a keybinding in rofi. See manpage.

[haasn]

@sudoforge Not sure why you linked that URL, maybe you meant this one? If so, it specifically states thate .cache is for non-essential (cached) data.

Non-essential cached data is data that can be regenerated if lost, albeit perhaps more slowly. (For example, it may need to be retrieved from a remote source, or recomputed). The purpose of a cache is to speed up access, rather than store persistent state. Clearing a cache should have no observable effects besides degrading performance.

If you look at other examples of programs that store files in ~/.cache, you'll find that they adhere to definition consistently: Deleting ~/.cache/fontconfig, for example, only causes fontconfig to spend more time figuring out information about fonts. Deleting ~/.cache/mozilla only causes firefox to lose its on-disk cache of network objects, causing it to redownload them on future requests. Deleting ~/.cache/mesa_shader_cache only causes the mesa shader compiler to spend CPU time recompile shader objects the next time you try using them. In none of these instances does the user-facing behavior of the program change.

An acceptable use of ~/.cache would be to cache the list of programs that exist on the system, because that can be regenerated at any point in time. What is not a good use of ~/.cache is storing history information about the user's executed programs, which essentially constitutes a user preference and cannot be regenerated in any way after lost.

[philer]

Any news on this? I want to move my ~/.cache onto tmpfs. The loss of my rofi history is the only obstacle. I rely on it quite heavily.

[DaveDavenport]

Added option to move the location of the files.
cache-dir .

[ghost]

I gott say I think ~/.local/share/rofi/rofi.cache seems to fit the bill on this one dave.

[philer]

That was some prompt action. Thank you @DaveDavenport, much appreciated!

[github-actions]

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