File Locations

This page explains what files are generated by hoard and where they can be found.

In general, hoard uses the directories library, using the config_dir and the data_dir of the ProjectDirs struct.

Config Directory

The configuration directory holds the configuration file (config.toml, config.yaml, or config.yml) as well as other local-only configuration data.

Linux/BSD: $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/hoard/ or $HOME/.config/hoard/
macos: $HOME/Library/Application Support/com.shadow53.hoard/
Windows: %AppData%\shadow53\hoard\

The configuration file (config.toml) contains the environment and hoard definitions, along with all related configuration. Follow the link in the previous sentence for more about the configuration file format.

UUID File

The UUID file (uuid) contains a unique identifier for the current system. This is used when performing pre-operation checks. Files relating to this UUID are synchronized between machines using whatever synchronization mechanism you use to synchronize hoards between machines, but nowhere else. This UUID is not used to identify your machines to any service, only the hoard program.

Hoard Data Directory

The hoard data directory contains all backed up hoard files, along with other files that should be synchronized with the hoard files.

Linux/BSD: $XDG_DATA_HOME/hoard/ or /home/$USER/.local/share/hoard/
macos: $HOME/Library/Application Support/com.shadow53.hoard/
Windows: %AppData%\shadow53\hoard\data\

Hoard Files

All files backed up by hoard are stored in the data directory, in a subdirectory called hoards.

The files are organized according to the names of the hoard and pile they are configured under.

As an example, consider the following real configuration:

[hoards.custom_fonts]
    "unix" = "/home/shadow53/.local/share/fonts"

[hoards.fish]
    [hoards.fish.confdir]
        "unix" = "/home/shadow53/.config/fish/conf.d"
    [hoards.fish.functions]
        "unix" = "/home/shadow53/.config/fish/functions"

[hoards.newsboat]
    "unix" = "/home/shadow53/.newsboat/config"

[hoards.qemu]
    [hoards.qemu.script]
        "unix" = "/home/shadow53/.bin/vm"
    [hoards.qemu.configs]
        "unix" = "/home/shadow53/.config/qemu"

These hoards/piles are stored in the following locations:

$data_dir
├─ custom_fonts/
├─ fish
│   ├─ confdir/
│   └─ functions/
├─ newsboat/
└─ qemu/
    ├─ script
    └─ configs/

History Files

There are currently two types of history-related files stored by hoard, both of which are used in pre-operation consistency checks. All history-related files are stored in a subdirectory history/{uuid} in the data directory, where uuid is the generated uuid of the current system.

Last Paths: a single file last_paths.json.
Operations: date-stamped JSON files with details of which files were modified during a given operation and what the checksum was for each file.

The Hoard Book