Difference between revisions of "Important hidden .dot files in your home partition"
Important hidden .dot files in your home partition (view source)
Revision as of 19:21, 7 November 2013
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=What's a hidden <.dot> file?= | |||
They are files & directories with a "'''.'''" dot in front of them. Placing a "'''.'''" dot in front of a file or directory tells the operating system that such files & directories are to be hidden from view in file managers, file requesters & such. File managers & other applications can usually be set to view these normally hidden files. These hidden files & directories usually contain config files of some sort. | They are files & directories with a "'''.'''" dot in front of them. Placing a "'''.'''" dot in front of a file or directory tells the operating system that such files & directories are to be hidden from view in file managers, file requesters & such. File managers & other applications can usually be set to view these normally hidden files. These hidden files & directories usually contain config files of some sort. | ||
I will refer to these hidden files as ''<.dot>'' files in this article. | I will refer to these hidden files as ''<.dot>'' files in this article. | ||
=Why is it worth knowing about these <.dot> files?= | |||
* It is well worthwhile knowing which <.dot> directories & files in your ~/ directory are valuable in saving you time & effort if you have to reinstall Manjaro due to a hardware failure, corrupt data, user error... | * It is well worthwhile knowing which <.dot> directories & files in your ~/ directory are valuable in saving you time & effort if you have to reinstall Manjaro due to a hardware failure, corrupt data, user error... | ||
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* This knowledge can also be used to backup important config files, some of which can have had many, many hours of work in them. | * This knowledge can also be used to backup important config files, some of which can have had many, many hours of work in them. | ||
=So, what do these <.dot> files in my /home do?= | |||
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Some examples of these are; panels, trays, clocks, text editors, image viewers, pdf viewers & whatever else that has been installed & configured on our system. A quick look in your ''~/.config'' directory will make this clear. | Some examples of these are; panels, trays, clocks, text editors, image viewers, pdf viewers & whatever else that has been installed & configured on our system. A quick look in your ''~/.config'' directory will make this clear. | ||
=Here is a guide to get you going= | |||
The following is a guide built from looking at my custom built Manjaro mongrel Openbox system. It has remnants of tried panels & the lal clock, xbmc & other stuff that I don't use. (Actually I deleted the .xbmc folder as it will never be used again.) | The following is a guide built from looking at my custom built Manjaro mongrel Openbox system. It has remnants of tried panels & the lal clock, xbmc & other stuff that I don't use. (Actually I deleted the .xbmc folder as it will never be used again.) | ||
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The following are hidden <.dot> directories & files that I would keep from my ~/ (this stands for my /home/<user.name> directory): | The following are hidden <.dot> directories & files that I would keep from my ~/ (this stands for my /home/<user.name> directory): | ||
==Directories== | |||
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'''.xbmc''' - if you are one who uses this software you will be wanting this important directory. | '''.xbmc''' - if you are one who uses this software you will be wanting this important directory. | ||
==Files== | |||
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It is certainly useful for reference, but is not necessarily a good candidate to overwrite an existing .xinitrc that has been installed by a different distro, or the same distro that is using a different DE/WM. So be careful with what you do with this one. | It is certainly useful for reference, but is not necessarily a good candidate to overwrite an existing .xinitrc that has been installed by a different distro, or the same distro that is using a different DE/WM. So be careful with what you do with this one. | ||
==When changing distros== | |||
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be overwritten. | be overwritten. | ||
==Deleting ALL <.dot> directories/files from your ~/== | |||
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'''NOTE:''''' If you choose to do the above after running the '''su''' command, be sure that you are still in your '''~/''' directory. As if you have landed in /root you must change directory into your /home/<user.name> directory, or else you will delete all of the /root hidden <.dot> files & not those from ~/ your user home.'' | '''NOTE:''''' If you choose to do the above after running the '''su''' command, be sure that you are still in your '''~/''' directory. As if you have landed in /root you must change directory into your /home/<user.name> directory, or else you will delete all of the /root hidden <.dot> files & not those from ~/ your user home.'' | ||
=Feedback= | |||
If you find any problems, room for improvement or whatever, please post in this thread in the Manjaro forum: [http://forum.manjaro.org/index.php?topic=2673.msg21752#msg21752] | If you find any problems, room for improvement or whatever, please post in this thread in the Manjaro forum: [http://forum.manjaro.org/index.php?topic=2673.msg21752#msg21752] | ||