-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA256 On Saturday 27 September 2025, Curt Howland was heard to say: > My main system doesn't have this problem, I have no idea what I did > right with that one.
Found it. If the entry is commented out in ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs it gets recreated automagically. #XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR="$HOME/Downloads" becomes XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR="$HOME/Downloads" However, if the entry in ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs is like this: XDG_DESKTOP_DIR="$HOME/Desktop" XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR="$HOME/" XDG_MUSIC_DIR="$HOME/" XDG_PICTURES_DIR="$HOME/" XDG_PUBLICSHARE_DIR="$HOME/" XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR="$HOME/" XDG_VIDEOS_DIR="$HOME/" XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR="$HOME/" the directories are not created, since ~/ already exists. On prior machines I had been copying the .config directory in its entirety, something I did not want to do again because cruft builds up. Many thanks, Mr. Heller, hopefully this will help some folks who find themselves having to create empty files to stop the directories being created. Curt- - -- You may my glories and my state dispose, But not my griefs; still am I king of those. --- William Shakespeare, "Richard II" -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- iHUEAREIAB0WIQTaYVhJsIalt8scIDa2T1fo1pHhqQUCaNiGWAAKCRC2T1fo1pHh qdd1AP0aN9re9D2PHNoxW6ipnELOEeWuicX2qLqQZ+HfaabJigD7B/BZSHQOmonl J2qrnqryaNweRZ1JiiXRws4ofECkEEY= =oWpJ -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

