Dear Maintainer,
xdg-user-dirs-update tries to load the system-wide configuration files
from /etc, rather than from /etc/xdg where they have been installed by
the package:
(wheezy-jhbuild)sascha.silbe@twin:~$ strace -f -s 256 xdg-user-dirs-update
[...]
stat("/home/sascha.silbe/.config/user-dirs.conf", 0x7fffb17b9f10) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
stat("/home/sascha.silbe/sugar-jhbuild/install/etc/xdg/user-dirs.conf", 0x7fffb17b9f10) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
stat("/etc/user-dirs.conf", 0x7fffb17b9f10) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
stat("/home/sascha.silbe/.config/user-dirs.defaults", 0x7fffb17b9cd0) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
stat("/home/sascha.silbe/sugar-jhbuild/install/etc/xdg/user-dirs.defaults", 0x7fffb17b9cd0) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
stat("/etc/user-dirs.defaults", 0x7fffb17b9cd0) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
write(2, "No default user directories\n", 28) = 28
[...]
(wheezy-jhbuild)sascha.silbe@twin:~$ ls -l /etc/xdg/user-dirs.*
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 414 Jul 30 17:00 /etc/xdg/user-dirs.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 418 Jul 30 17:00 /etc/xdg/user-dirs.defaults
(wheezy-jhbuild)sascha.silbe@twin:~$
This renders xdg-user-dir unusable on systems without pre-existing user
configuration files or manual intervention by the user (like setting up
symlinks in /etc that point to the correct locations).