Remove might be a bit to harsh about xdg HOT 3 CLOSED

Yes, it could return an error there. However, the runtime directory must be a directory and it must be owned by the current user according to the specifications. On that code path, the file is not a directory. The other thing the specs specify is that the user owner must be the only one with read/write access to it.

$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR defines the base directory relative to which user-specific non-essential runtime files and 
other file objects  (such as sockets, named pipes, ...) should be stored. The directory MUST be owned by the
user, and he MUST be the only one having read and write access to it. Its Unix access mode MUST be 0700.

EDIT: it's a very unlikely scenario. But yes, it probably is a bit harsh to remove it.

from xdg.

Correct, I agree that these are the rules, but if that path exists, and I don't have XDG path setup, a program would simply delete that file.

The way I look at it, if XDG_RUNTIME_DIR is invalid, the the user have an invalid XDG setup, if the user have an invalid setup, a program shouldn't just remove files.

Bu I do agree that an error should be returned, such that we adhere to the rules.

from xdg.

Removed the directory verification. If the file is not a directory, createPath will return an error instead.
Closing this issue.

from xdg.