Code snippet to get the config location based on the XDG Base Directory Specification.

python-get-config-path.py

import os

def get_config_path(project_name=None, config_name=None):
    '''
    Gets the config location based on the XDG Base Directory Specification.
    If no config is found, the home directory based path is returned.
    '''
    if not project_name:
        project_name = os.path.basename(__file__).split('.')[0]
    if not config_name:
        config_name = "{}.conf".format(project_name)
    locations = [
        os.path.join(os.curdir, config_name),
        os.path.join(os.path.expanduser('~'), '.config', project_name, config_name),
        os.path.join('/etc', project_name, config_name),
        os.environ.get("{}_CONF".format(project_name)),
    ]
    for path in locations:
        if path and os.path.exists(path) and os.path.isfile(path):
            return path
    return locations[1]