The way I handle it on my systems, certain programs such as ssh and bash get "special status". They are so deeply fundamental that they get a pass when I gripe

The way I handle it on my systems, certain programs such as ssh and bash get "special status". They are so deeply fundamental that they get a pass when I gripe about .rcfile proliferation. You get .ssh/, .netrc, and .bashrc, I'll allow it. That doesn't mean every .dumb_tiny_cli_rc gets to do that as well. > I should also note that $HOME/.program-name is very much a community standard that the XDG people decided to move away from. So was every single inferior standard or convention, before it was replaced by a better one. It's called progress. It's a balance between improvement and breaking changes / disruption, but you need some improvement over time.