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    41ac7a82
    Distinguish between the Steam installation (root) and data paths · 41ac7a82
    Simon McVittie authored
    
    Until now we've been conflating these two, but Timothee Besset recently
    clarified their status for me.
    
    ~/.steam/steam is maintained by bin_steam.sh, aka /usr/bin/steam,
    in which it is referred to as STEAMDATALINK. It is the data directory
    containing user data (cloud-synced configuration and saves), the
    download cache, and the default Steam Library directory.
    
    ~/.steam/root is maintained by steam.sh, in which it is referred to as
    STEAMROOTLINK. It is the installation directory, containing Steam
    executables and libraries.
    
    As a result, they are normally the same, but can differ, in particular
    in two situations:
    
    * When testing a new Steam client build by running client/steam.sh,
      client/ gets used as the installation directory, in conjunction with
      the existing data directory pointed to by ~/.steam/steam. This avoids
      having to re-login or re-download your library of games for the new
      test installation.
    
    * When Debian bug #916303 was present during the initial Steam
      installation, the Steam client was unpacked into ~/.steam, resulting
      in creation of ~/.steam/steam as a real directory that cannot be
      replaced with a symbolic link. We effectively ended up using
      ~/.steam as the installation path, but with ~/.steam/steam as the
      data path. (The Debian steam package has since been fixed, but we
      cannot easily disentangle existing installations.)
    
    Signed-off-by: default avatarSimon McVittie <smcv@collabora.com>
    41ac7a82
    History
    Distinguish between the Steam installation (root) and data paths
    Simon McVittie authored
    
    Until now we've been conflating these two, but Timothee Besset recently
    clarified their status for me.
    
    ~/.steam/steam is maintained by bin_steam.sh, aka /usr/bin/steam,
    in which it is referred to as STEAMDATALINK. It is the data directory
    containing user data (cloud-synced configuration and saves), the
    download cache, and the default Steam Library directory.
    
    ~/.steam/root is maintained by steam.sh, in which it is referred to as
    STEAMROOTLINK. It is the installation directory, containing Steam
    executables and libraries.
    
    As a result, they are normally the same, but can differ, in particular
    in two situations:
    
    * When testing a new Steam client build by running client/steam.sh,
      client/ gets used as the installation directory, in conjunction with
      the existing data directory pointed to by ~/.steam/steam. This avoids
      having to re-login or re-download your library of games for the new
      test installation.
    
    * When Debian bug #916303 was present during the initial Steam
      installation, the Steam client was unpacked into ~/.steam, resulting
      in creation of ~/.steam/steam as a real directory that cannot be
      replaced with a symbolic link. We effectively ended up using
      ~/.steam as the installation path, but with ~/.steam/steam as the
      data path. (The Debian steam package has since been fixed, but we
      cannot easily disentangle existing installations.)
    
    Signed-off-by: default avatarSimon McVittie <smcv@collabora.com>