Where should settings files be stored?

Question

I'm writing an application in python (using wxPython for the gui) and I'm looking for a platform independent way to decide where to store application settings files. On linux systems, where is it customary to store application settings files? How about on Mac, and Windows (all modern versions)?

Ideally I'd like to have a module that provides a platform agnostic interface to locate these files. Does something like this already exist?

Answer 1

wxPython has your back. You want wx.StandardPaths. There's a good example included with the wxPython demo.

Answer 2

There is a standard for this by freedesktop.org that you may find useful:
http://standards.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/basedir-spec-latest.html