Bug 436458

Summary:	Request for documentation on backing up config files
Product:	[Websites] docs.kde.org	Reporter:	Chef Niko <culinaryelation>
Component:	Missing Content	Assignee:	Documentation Editorial Team <kde-doc-english>
Status:	REPORTED ---
Severity:	wishlist	CC:	yurchor
Priority:	NOR
Version:	unspecified
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	Ubuntu
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Chef Niko 2021-05-01 15:48:39 UTC

SUMMARY
There's a lot of config options in KDE, and no documentation on how to back them up. Looking at guides from others, there's a lot of outdated and hit-and-miss information. It would be really helpful if there was documentation on exactly how to back up the settings.


STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Read KDE manual

OBSERVED RESULT
No documentation on how to backup settings.

EXPECTED RESULT
Clear documentation on how to backup settings.

Comment 1 Yuri Chornoivan 2021-05-01 16:31:10 UTC

There is the official documentation on where Plasma and applications store data.

https://userbase.kde.org/KDE_System_Administration/KDE_Filesystem_Hierarchy

https://userbase.kde.org/KDE_System_Administration/XDG_Filesystem_Hierarchy

It should be updated accordingly but in general, the specification requires all the settings to be stored in ~/.config.

It should be enough to back up this folder. But... Zoom, Viber, Matlab, Scilab, LyX, and many other applications do not follow the specification. What is the reason to back up only Plasma configuration?

Comment 2 Chef Niko 2021-05-01 17:16:23 UTC

Thank you for the link to the existing documentation. Unfortunately it is quite out of date, and no longer applicable.

Backing up the entirety of ~/.config will get most of the configuration settings, though not quite all of them. However, that will also backup the configuration setting for every application installed on the system (using the ~/.config folder), which is horribly inefficient. 

Backing up only the Plasma configuration allows the possibility of installing a new (or re-installing) an operating system, then easily applying the desired configuration, without having to spend time setting it up again.

It's really great that Plasma is so configurable, but it's not something I want to do more than once. Unfortunately, that's exactly what I'm doing today.