Saving and restoring Ubuntu settings for fresh Ubuntu installations

Solution 1:

They are all stored as config files in ~/.config/ or ~/.<software-name>

So if you copy over your home directory, or at least that (hidden) folder, you should see most(all?) your settings restored

Solution 2:

tar is your friend.

I recently updated from mint 17.3 to 18.2 and I wanted it to be as smooth as a transition as possible and it was thanks to tar.

1. Create a backup of your home directory
   • tar -cvf home_backup.tar ~/*
   • ~/* is all the files in your home directory
2. Put the tarball on a separate drive or machine
3. Extract the tarball right ontop of your home directory (in new machine)
   • cd ~
   • tar -xf home_backup.tar