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Cache Directory Tagging Specification (2004)

Many application programs create and manage cache directories of some kind: directories in which they store temporary information whose storage can benefit the application's performance, but which can easily be regenerated from other "primary" data sources if it is lost. For example, most web browsers have a cache directory in which they store downloaded Internet content (Mozilla typically uses a directory called Cache somewhere under $(HOME)/.mozilla).

I propose an extremely simple convention by which applications can reliably "tag" any cache directories they create, for easy identification by backup systems and other data management utilities. In short, to maintain robustness of backups in the face of security compromises, cache directory tags should only be treated as hints, never as "the final word" on what should and should not be backed up. Such a slight directory structure change should not cause any backward compatibility problems, since by definition any cache file in the old location is regenerable and can just be deleted or moved.

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