Changing documents folders MOVED my stuff!

[cmulcahy]

Here's an odd one. I was having severe KDE stability problems so moved to Gnome for a year. I decided to just go ahead and rename my ~/.kde directory and try KDE out again. All went well with a fresh install.

It was as I was configuring my new environment that my system tried to give me a heart attack. Nearly worked, too!

I was changing where KDE looks for Documents, Pictures, Music, etc. For some reason, KDE moved all of my home directory contents to new places.

I have a /music directory that is symlinked into my home directory (to make sharing music easier with other users on the system). My symlink was deleted and replaced with a physical Music directory. MOST of my home directory contents were moved to /music. Some of my content was moved to my ~/Downloads directory. My ~/Desktop directory was moved to be a sub of ~/Downloads. Basically, it scattered everything I had in ~ thoughout my filesystem. I'm sure there's a pattern and a reason but I'll be damned if I can figure it out.

Is this a "stupid user" issue on my part? Is there a bug in KDE as it relates to special document directories?

Lastly, which config file holds reference to these directories so I can edit the file directly (~/music instead of ~/Music) and hopefully avoid having my files strewn throughout creation?

Thanks in advance.

[Zorael]

There's actually a dialog that pops up when you change the paths, asking if you want to move your old content to the new directories. So in a sense it's per design.

The file where such directories are defined is at ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs. The system-wide "template" given to new users is at /etc/xdg/user-dirs.defaults. It should be an environment-unspecific setting, so what you set up in GNOME should transfer to KDE.

[cmulcahy]

That makes perfect sense. I did not see that dialog asking if I want all of my stuff scattered around the filesystem but it was early in the morning. Perhaps I did not have enough coffee in me yet.

Thanks for the info. It sounds like a likely explanation. Anyway, I found all of my files and put them back where they belong. It's all good again.