Use platform defined data directories instead of ~/.python_history

[oxalica]

BPO	44239
Nosy	@oxalica
PRs	gh-88405: Use platform defined data directories instead of ~/.python_history #26377

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields:

assignee = None
closed_at = None
created_at = <Date 2021-05-26.10:58:43.729>
labels = ['type-feature', 'library', '3.11']
title = 'Use platform defined data directories instead of ~/.python_history'
updated_at = <Date 2021-05-26.11:39:53.868>
user = 'https://github.com/oxalica'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2021-05-26.11:39:53.868>
actor = 'python-dev'
assignee = 'none'
closed = False
closed_date = None
closer = None
components = ['Library (Lib)']
creation = <Date 2021-05-26.10:58:43.729>
creator = 'oxalica'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 44239
keywords = ['patch']
message_count = 1.0
messages = ['394429']
nosy_count = 2.0
nosy_names = ['python-dev', 'oxalica']
pr_nums = ['26377']
priority = 'normal'
resolution = None
stage = 'patch review'
status = 'open'
superseder = None
type = 'enhancement'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue44239'
versions = ['Python 3.11']

[oxalica]

Currently we use path ~/.python_history for history file in all platforms.
It is not a good choice since it spams in user's home directory.

There are already specifications for where to store program data.
For Windows, we should use %APPDATA%/Python/history;
for Mac OS, we should use ~/Library/Application Support/Python/history;
for other POSIX platforms, we should use $XDG_DATA_HOME/python/history or ~/.local/share/python/history according to XDG Spec.

These paths should be preferred as default. But we can also check and use ~/.python_history if it exists and readable, for compatibility.

[Igetin]

for other POSIX platforms, we should use $XDG_DATA_HOME/python/history or ~/.local/share/python/history according to XDG Spec.

The specification actually received an amendment on the very month this message was originally posted. It now additionally specifies $XDG_STATE_HOME, which should be the way to go here instead of $XDG_DATA_HOME:

The $XDG_STATE_HOME contains state data that should persist between (application) restarts, but that is not important or portable enough to the user that it should be stored in $XDG_DATA_HOME. It may contain:

• actions history (logs, history, recently used files, …)
• current state of the application that can be reused on a restart (view, layout, open files, undo history, …)

[hauntsaninja]

Note that we merged #73965 , so the location of this file can now be controlled by PYTHON_HISTORY