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cialu
Asked: 2018-05-25 00:53:40 +0800 CST

How to move config files to new installation

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I want to perform a new clean installation of Ubuntu 18.04 but I would want to keep all my configuration files for determinate programs, e.g. Thunderbird with all the mail accounts.

Is sufficient to copy the hidden folders (e.g. .thunderbird folder) of interested applications from my home folder to the new installation?

Thanks in advance for answers.

system-installation configuration thunderbird directory 18.04

1 Answers

  1. Some apps store files in

    ~/.local/[share/]

    (esp. GTK+ or gnome apps like evolution [MUA]), Qt or KDE apps tend to be in 

    ~/.kde/[share/]

    however you should note its up to the programmer to choose which standard to follow (inc. following none), so I'd suggest just keeping most (if not all) ~ (/home/$USER/) directory

    Thunderbird or your example is not a standard DEsktop app, coming from Mozilla. It may be a standard for a distro like Ubuntu, but its not a GNOME standard, nor a KDE/Qt standard, not a XFCE.... This is probably why it's found in its own directory, and not following GTK+ or Qt guidelines (or standards)

    Key is programmers can choose to ignore 'standards', though official GNOME apps tend to follow GTK+ rules; official KDE apps tend to follow Qt/KDE rules etc

    I looked in my ~/.kde/share/ on this 16.04 box and see a ~/.kde/share/kde4/ directory. Ubuntu 16.04 is Qt5 default/standard with those Qt5 apps/programs using the main directory; but any older Qt4 files will be located with the kde4/ subdirectory. Either way they are still found in ~/.kde/share/ FYI: i don't have KDE/LXQt installed on this box, but do have some Qt apps installed

    I would suggest copy all of /home/$USER/ directory usually, however I prefer to follow my own judgement (after backup of course) to copy in only files I want/need to keep, (eg. email, liferea ...) and just use cp -pn (copy new only preserve attributes) for other stuff but this takes longer, so /home/$USER is often tried first. If it doesn't go as intended, I restore a backup & try something different; but rarely have issues (one release change had liferea database issues due to a different database being used on later version, otherwise I've not had issues)

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