I really like to tweak the various Plasma settings and customize my desktop using applets and themes. But if there is one thing I am missing it’s a way to export and import all the customizations and settings that I have made. Programs like konsave and PlasmaConfSaver exist but are no longer maintained and I would like to see an official implementation for a way to do this.
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There is no implementation currently, as no-one put energy into it. We have plenty of more pressing issues to fix you see.
But that’s quite simple in fact.
Copy over folder ~/.config and you should have almost all your settings.
Some folders in ~/.local/share might be interesting to copy as well, contains some applications settings, that’s where applets are getting installed IIRC.
All of KDE apps and Plasma settings are stored in those two folders.
Hello, but this does not work fine, as you need to select specific plasma applications and all sorts of plasma configurations. For example, I have installed a virtual machine and want to transfer the design and settings. But .config .local/share contains steam, games, chromium and can weigh tens of gigabytes. And I will manually search for where the plasma settings are. It will be easier to press the backup button in plasma and transfer it to a virtual machine and click import there.
Thank you for your response and I’m sorry to hear that this is not a priority. As the user goran said in the thread Backup [ Or Cloud Backup] of system configs, their IT department needs a way to configure hundreds of systems for deployment and are willing to pay for it.
I think such a feature would benefit a lot of people and also help make KDE Plasma more popular. But I’ll find a way to do it by hand for now. Thanks for the pointers.
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For anyone interested I made a bash script (down bellow) with some help from ChatGPT that basically does what konsave and PlasmaConfSaver did. But I would still like to see official support for importing and exporting settings in Plasma.
Show Script
#!/bin/bash
# Backup and Restore script for files and directories in the home directory
# Color variables
black='\033[0;30m'
red='\033[0;31m'
green='\033[0;32m'
yellow='\033[0;33m'
blue='\033[0;34m'
magenta='\033[0;35m'
cyan='\033[0;36m'
white='\033[0;37m'
clear='\033[0m' # Reset to default color
# Get the directory and filename of the script
script_dir=$(dirname "$(realpath "$0")")
script_name=$(basename "$0")
if [ "$EUID" -eq 0 ]; then
echo -e "[${red} Warning ${clear}] Running as root"
echo -e "[${red} Warning ${clear}] This will create or restore the backup in root home"
read -r -p "Press enter to continue..."
fi
show_help() {
echo -e "Usage: $script_name [options]"
echo -e ""
echo -e "Options:"
echo -e " -b, --backup [configuration_file] Create a backup using the specified configuration file"
echo -e " -r, --restore [archive_file] Restore files from the specified archive file"
echo -e " -c, --config Create a new default configuration file in the current directory"
echo -e " -h, --help Display this help message"
}
backup() {
local config_file="$1"
# Check if the configuration file exists in the provided path
if [[ ! -e "$config_file" ]]; then
echo -e "[${red} Error ${clear}] $config_file does not exist"
exit 1
fi
# Source the configuration file
source "$config_file"
# Set name for archive if none is provided
[[ $NAME = "" ]] && NAME="Backup"
# Function to add files to the archive
add_to_archive() {
local path="$1"
if [[ -e "$path" ]]; then
local relative_path
relative_path=$(realpath --relative-to="$HOME" "$path")
echo -e "[${blue} Add ${clear}] $path added to archive"
tar --append --file="$NAME.tar.gz" --directory="$HOME" --transform="s|^$HOME||" "$relative_path"
else
echo -e "[${yellow} Skip ${clear}] $path does not exist"
fi
}
# Function to process include arrays
process_include_array() {
local include_var_name=$1
local include_array=("${!include_var_name}")
for item in "${include_array[@]}"; do
if [[ $item == *\** ]]; then
for expanded_path in $item; do
add_to_archive "$expanded_path"
done
else
add_to_archive "$item"
fi
done
}
# Detect and process all _INCLUDE arrays
for include_var in $(compgen -A variable | grep '_INCLUDE$'); do
echo -e "[${cyan} Check ${clear}] $include_var..."
process_include_array "$include_var[@]"
done
# Include the configuration file in the backup archive
tar --append --file="$NAME.tar.gz" -- "$config_file"
# Add the script itself to the archive
tar --append --file="$NAME.tar.gz" --directory="$script_dir" --transform="s|^$script_dir/||" "$script_name"
echo -e "[${green} Done ${clear}] Archive created at $(realpath "./$NAME.tar.gz")"
}
restore() {
local archive_file="$1"
if [[ -f "$archive_file" ]]; then
echo -e "[${blue} Copy ${clear}] Extracting files from $archive_file."
tar --extract --file="$archive_file" --directory="$HOME" --transform="s|^||" --no-same-owner
echo -e "[${green} Done ${clear}] Restore from $archive_file completed"
else
echo -e "[${red} Error ${clear}] $archive_file does not exist"
exit 1
fi
}
create_config() {
local config_file="./$script_name.conf"
cat > "$config_file" <<EOL
# $script_name configuration file
# Any array named _INCLUDE will be checked
# Paths can be both files and directories
NAME=""
# Common paths
CONFIG_DIR="\$HOME/.config"
BIN_DIR="\$HOME/.local/bin"
SHARE_DIR="\$HOME/.local/share"
HOME_INCLUDE=(
"\$HOME/.fonts"
"\$HOME/.icons"
"\$HOME/.themes"
)
SHARE_INCLUDE=(
"\$SHARE_DIR/aurorae"
"\$SHARE_DIR/color-schemes"
"\$SHARE_DIR/fonts"
"\$SHARE_DIR/icons"
"\$SHARE_DIR/konsole"
"\$SHARE_DIR/kwin"
"\$SHARE_DIR/plasma"
"\$SHARE_DIR/wallpapers"
)
CONFIG_INCLUDE=(
"\$CONFIG_DIR/Kvantum"
"\$CONFIG_DIR/breezerc"
"\$CONFIG_DIR/dolphinrc"
"\$CONFIG_DIR/gtk-2.0"
"\$CONFIG_DIR/gtk-3.0"
"\$CONFIG_DIR/gtk-4.0"
"\$CONFIG_DIR/gtkrc"
"\$CONFIG_DIR/gtkrc-2.0"
"\$CONFIG_DIR/kate"
"\$CONFIG_DIR/katerc"
"\$CONFIG_DIR/kcminputrc"
"\$CONFIG_DIR/kdeglobals"
"\$CONFIG_DIR/kglobalshortcutsrc"
"\$CONFIG_DIR/khotkeysrc"
"\$CONFIG_DIR/klipperrc"
"\$CONFIG_DIR/konsolerc"
"\$CONFIG_DIR/krunnerrc"
"\$CONFIG_DIR/kscreenlockerrc"
"\$CONFIG_DIR/ksmserverrc"
"\$CONFIG_DIR/ksplashrc"
"\$CONFIG_DIR/kwinrc"
"\$CONFIG_DIR/kwinrulesrc"
"\$CONFIG_DIR/latte"
"\$CONFIG_DIR/lattedockrc"
"\$CONFIG_DIR/lightlyrc"
"\$CONFIG_DIR/oxygenrc"
"\$CONFIG_DIR/plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc"
"\$CONFIG_DIR/plasmarc"
"\$CONFIG_DIR/plasmashellrc"
)
# Code OSS settings
#CODE_OSS_INCLUDE=("\$CONFIG_DIR/Code - OSS/User/settings.json")
# Firefox customization
#FIREFOX_INCLUDE=("\$HOME/.mozilla/firefox/*.default-release/chrome")
EOL
echo -e "[${green} Done ${clear}] Configuration file created at $(realpath "$config_file")"
}
# Parse command-line options
while [[ $# -gt 0 ]]; do
case $1 in
-b|--backup)
shift
backup "$1"
exit 0
;;
-r|--restore)
shift
restore "$1"
exit 0
;;
-c|--config)
create_config
exit 0
;;
-h|--help)
show_help
exit 0
;;
*)
echo -e "[${red} Error ${clear}] Invalid option"
show_help
exit 1
;;
esac
done
echo -e "[${red} Error ${clear}] No option provided"
show_help
exit 1