How to find default download directory in linux through c program?

Question

As I titled,

is there any API available, to determine the default download directory in the Linux?

I am using ubuntu distribution.

Answer 1

Quite late to the party but: There is XDG specification that covers exactly this topic. To get the download directory in shell (script) just run:

$ xdg-user-dir DOWNLOAD
/home/djasa/Downloads

For programs, the location is available in $HOME/.config/user-dirs.dirs:

$ grep DOWNLOAD .config/user-dirs.dirs 
XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR="$HOME/Downloads"

For more information about XDG, read man pages that man -k xdg returns to you.

Answer 2

There is no "default download directory" at the level of the OS, though all current distros will create a ~/Downloads directory for this purpose and most browsers will choose it by default. What are you trying to accomplish?