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 18.04 directory configuration thunderbird
asked May 24 at 8:53
cialu
332220
 |Â
show 1 more comment
up vote
1
down vote
favorite
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 18.04 directory configuration thunderbird
asked May 24 at 8:53
cialu
332220
In case of thunderbird I can confirm this will 100% work, the other applications, not sure which they are. I transfer my.thunderbirdfolder since Ubuntu 15.04 and it always worked. Copying the.mozillafolder before you start firefox should as well copy over your settings and bookmarks and passwords there (just not forget to set your master password as new when you do that, this somehow gets lost sometimes).
– Videonauth
May 24 at 8:55
In any case please be more explizit which applications settings you think of moving over.
– Videonauth
May 24 at 9:03
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
– guiverc
May 24 at 9:14
I'm looking for a general rule to understand also about system standards to save config files. Thanks for the answers, they clarified me a lot.
– cialu
May 24 at 9:18
Thunderbird or your example is not a standard DEsktop app (eg. it may be for a distro like Ubuntu, but its not a gnome standard, not a KDE/Qt standard, not a XFCE....) - hence its got its own dir (mozilla std maybe) & is outside GTK+, Qt rules - but key is programmers can choose to ignore 'standards' - official GNOME apps tend to follow GTK+ rules; official KDE apps tend to follow Qt/KDE rules etc
– guiverc
May 24 at 9:20
 |Â
show 1 more comment
up vote
1
down vote
favorite
up vote
1
down vote
favorite
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 18.04 directory configuration thunderbird
asked May 24 at 8:53
cialu
332220
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 18.04 directory configuration thunderbird
asked May 24 at 8:53
cialu
332220
asked May 24 at 8:53
cialu
332220
asked May 24 at 8:53
cialu
332220
asked May 24 at 8:53
cialu
332220
332220
In case of thunderbird I can confirm this will 100% work, the other applications, not sure which they are. I transfer my.thunderbirdfolder since Ubuntu 15.04 and it always worked. Copying the.mozillafolder before you start firefox should as well copy over your settings and bookmarks and passwords there (just not forget to set your master password as new when you do that, this somehow gets lost sometimes).
– Videonauth
May 24 at 8:55
In any case please be more explizit which applications settings you think of moving over.
– Videonauth
May 24 at 9:03
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
– guiverc
May 24 at 9:14
I'm looking for a general rule to understand also about system standards to save config files. Thanks for the answers, they clarified me a lot.
– cialu
May 24 at 9:18
Thunderbird or your example is not a standard DEsktop app (eg. it may be for a distro like Ubuntu, but its not a gnome standard, not a KDE/Qt standard, not a XFCE....) - hence its got its own dir (mozilla std maybe) & is outside GTK+, Qt rules - but key is programmers can choose to ignore 'standards' - official GNOME apps tend to follow GTK+ rules; official KDE apps tend to follow Qt/KDE rules etc
– guiverc
May 24 at 9:20
 |Â
show 1 more comment
In case of thunderbird I can confirm this will 100% work, the other applications, not sure which they are. I transfer my.thunderbirdfolder since Ubuntu 15.04 and it always worked. Copying the.mozillafolder before you start firefox should as well copy over your settings and bookmarks and passwords there (just not forget to set your master password as new when you do that, this somehow gets lost sometimes).
– Videonauth
May 24 at 8:55
In any case please be more explizit which applications settings you think of moving over.
– Videonauth
May 24 at 9:03
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
– guiverc
May 24 at 9:14
I'm looking for a general rule to understand also about system standards to save config files. Thanks for the answers, they clarified me a lot.
– cialu
May 24 at 9:18
Thunderbird or your example is not a standard DEsktop app (eg. it may be for a distro like Ubuntu, but its not a gnome standard, not a KDE/Qt standard, not a XFCE....) - hence its got its own dir (mozilla std maybe) & is outside GTK+, Qt rules - but key is programmers can choose to ignore 'standards' - official GNOME apps tend to follow GTK+ rules; official KDE apps tend to follow Qt/KDE rules etc
– guiverc
May 24 at 9:20
In case of thunderbird I can confirm this will 100% work, the other applications, not sure which they are. I transfer my
.thunderbird folder since Ubuntu 15.04 and it always worked. Copying the .mozilla folder before you start firefox should as well copy over your settings and bookmarks and passwords there (just not forget to set your master password as new when you do that, this somehow gets lost sometimes).– Videonauth
May 24 at 8:55
In case of thunderbird I can confirm this will 100% work, the other applications, not sure which they are. I transfer my
.thunderbird folder since Ubuntu 15.04 and it always worked. Copying the .mozilla folder before you start firefox should as well copy over your settings and bookmarks and passwords there (just not forget to set your master password as new when you do that, this somehow gets lost sometimes).– Videonauth
May 24 at 8:55
In any case please be more explizit which applications settings you think of moving over.
– Videonauth
May 24 at 9:03
In any case please be more explizit which applications settings you think of moving over.
– Videonauth
May 24 at 9:03
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
– guiverc
May 24 at 9:14
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/$USER/) directory
– guiverc
May 24 at 9:14
I'm looking for a general rule to understand also about system standards to save config files. Thanks for the answers, they clarified me a lot.
– cialu
May 24 at 9:18
I'm looking for a general rule to understand also about system standards to save config files. Thanks for the answers, they clarified me a lot.
– cialu
May 24 at 9:18
Thunderbird or your example is not a standard DEsktop app (eg. it may be for a distro like Ubuntu, but its not a gnome standard, not a KDE/Qt standard, not a XFCE....) - hence its got its own dir (mozilla std maybe) & is outside GTK+, Qt rules - but key is programmers can choose to ignore 'standards' - official GNOME apps tend to follow GTK+ rules; official KDE apps tend to follow Qt/KDE rules etc
– guiverc
May 24 at 9:20
Thunderbird or your example is not a standard DEsktop app (eg. it may be for a distro like Ubuntu, but its not a gnome standard, not a KDE/Qt standard, not a XFCE....) - hence its got its own dir (mozilla std maybe) & is outside GTK+, Qt rules - but key is programmers can choose to ignore 'standards' - official GNOME apps tend to follow GTK+ rules; official KDE apps tend to follow Qt/KDE rules etc
– guiverc
May 24 at 9:20
 |Â
show 1 more comment
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
up vote
2
down vote
Some apps store files in
~/.local/[share/]
(esp. GTK+ or gnome apps like evolution [MUA]), Qt or KDE apps tend to be in
~/.kde/[share/]
however you should note its up to the programmer to choose which standard to follow (inc. following none), so I'd suggest just keeping most (if not all) ~ (/home/$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)
answered May 24 at 9:33
guiverc
3,16411121
answer is made from my prior comments...
– guiverc
May 24 at 9:33
add a comment |Â
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
up vote
2
down vote
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/$USER is often tried first. If it doesn't go as intended, I restore a backup & try something different; but rarely have issues (one release change had liferea database issues due to a different database being used on later version, otherwise I've not had issues)
answered May 24 at 9:33
guiverc
3,16411121
answer is made from my prior comments...
– guiverc
May 24 at 9:33
add a comment |Â
up vote
2
down vote
Some apps store files in
~/.local/[share/]
(esp. GTK+ or gnome apps like evolution [MUA]), Qt or KDE apps tend to be in
~/.kde/[share/]
however you should note its up to the programmer to choose which standard to follow (inc. following none), so I'd suggest just keeping most (if not all) ~ (/home/$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)
answered May 24 at 9:33
guiverc
3,16411121
answer is made from my prior comments...
– guiverc
May 24 at 9:33
add a comment |Â
up vote
2
down vote
up vote
2
down vote
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/$USER is often tried first. If it doesn't go as intended, I restore a backup & try something different; but rarely have issues (one release change had liferea database issues due to a different database being used on later version, otherwise I've not had issues)
answered May 24 at 9:33
guiverc
3,16411121
Some apps store files in
~/.local/[share/]
(esp. GTK+ or gnome apps like evolution [MUA]), Qt or KDE apps tend to be in
~/.kde/[share/]
however you should note its up to the programmer to choose which standard to follow (inc. following none), so I'd suggest just keeping most (if not all) ~ (/home/$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)
answered May 24 at 9:33
guiverc
3,16411121
edited May 24 at 9:43
answered May 24 at 9:33
guiverc
3,16411121
answered May 24 at 9:33
guiverc
3,16411121
answered May 24 at 9:33
guiverc
3,16411121
3,16411121
answer is made from my prior comments...
– guiverc
May 24 at 9:33
add a comment |Â
answer is made from my prior comments...
– guiverc
May 24 at 9:33
answer is made from my prior comments...
– guiverc
May 24 at 9:33
answer is made from my prior comments...
– guiverc
May 24 at 9:33
add a comment |Â
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In case of thunderbird I can confirm this will 100% work, the other applications, not sure which they are. I transfer my
.thunderbirdfolder since Ubuntu 15.04 and it always worked. Copying the.mozillafolder before you start firefox should as well copy over your settings and bookmarks and passwords there (just not forget to set your master password as new when you do that, this somehow gets lost sometimes).– Videonauth
May 24 at 8:55
In any case please be more explizit which applications settings you think of moving over.
– Videonauth
May 24 at 9:03
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
– guiverc
May 24 at 9:14
I'm looking for a general rule to understand also about system standards to save config files. Thanks for the answers, they clarified me a lot.
– cialu
May 24 at 9:18
Thunderbird or your example is not a standard DEsktop app (eg. it may be for a distro like Ubuntu, but its not a gnome standard, not a KDE/Qt standard, not a XFCE....) - hence its got its own dir (mozilla std maybe) & is outside GTK+, Qt rules - but key is programmers can choose to ignore 'standards' - official GNOME apps tend to follow GTK+ rules; official KDE apps tend to follow Qt/KDE rules etc
– guiverc
May 24 at 9:20