unable to change directory for config file

How do you start Terminator?
If you do this using a desktop file (e.g. /usr/share/applications/terminator.desktop), then you could try changing the line
exec=terminator
into
exec=XDG_CONFIG_HOME=~/programs/config terminator

If you just put
XDG_CONFIG_HOME=~/programs/config terminator
into your bashrc file, then this cannot work, because such statement is valid only inside the bashrc process.
You would have to put "export" in front of that statement to make it valid also for other processes started via the shell.

I launch terminator using key combination <Ctrl><Alt>t

I have also tried
export XDG_CONFIG_HOME=~/programs/config

this has no effect the terminator.

when I try to launch terminator using command `terminator` from terminal, it works fine as expected.
I want it to work fine with shortcut key combination <Ctrl><Alt>t

I use ubuntu-16.06 unity

"ubuntu-16.06" does not exist and has never existed.

Try putting the "export XDG_CONFIG_HOME ..." statement into ~/.profile and do a logoff/logon.

sorry, my fault, it was a typo actually its `ubuntu 16.04` not `10.06`

putting the "export XDG_CONFIG_HOME ..." statement into ~/.profile, solved my problem for a go. but it seems like it should not be the solution. as by doing this all my config files are altered. I just wanted to change location of config file for terminator not all other applications.

Is there any way like adding line into config file which will say "import programs/config/terminator/config" into it.

as we can do in ~/.gitconfig we can write
[include]
    path = ~/programs/config/gitconfig

in ~/.vimrc we can write
:so ~/programs/config/vim/vimrc

in ~/.bashrc we can write:
. ~/programs/config/bashrc

I want some kind of solution so that I can import my file from ~/programs/config into terminator default config file.

this will not impact location of config files of other applications.

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