Files and locations

Everything dotsync keeps on a machine lives under the XDG base directories. The paths below are the defaults; each group moves if you set the matching variable (XDG_CONFIG_HOME, XDG_DATA_HOME or XDG_STATE_HOME) to an absolute path. Nothing here is ever synced.

Configuration: `~/.config/dotsync/`

Path	Purpose	Safe to delete?
`config.json`	the machine configuration	only if you run `init` again

Data: `~/.local/share/dotsync/`

Path	Purpose	Safe to delete?
`repo/`	the cache clone of the shared repository. dotsync resets it whenever it needs to, and at least daily. Never edit it	yes; run `init` to recreate it
`icon.png`	the dotsync icon, for desktop notifications	yes; it’s recreated

State: `~/.local/state/dotsync/`

Path	Purpose	Safe to delete?
`state.json`	the base of every managed file, queued changes, conflicts, the last sync’s result, housekeeping dates, and a cache of file metadata so unchanged files aren’t read again	yes, but see below
`state.json.corrupt-<time>`	a state file that couldn’t be read, set aside	yes
`backups/<run>/`	copies of local files dotsync replaced or deleted, one directory per sync run. Pruned after `backup_retention_days`, keeping the newest copy of each file	yes, any time
`conflicts/`	a copy of the repository’s side of each current conflict, for `diff`	yes
`sync.log`, `sync.log.1`	changes, conflicts and errors, rotated at 1 MiB	yes
`agent.log`	the background job’s output, with launchd and cron	yes
`lock`	keeps two syncs from running at once	yes, when no sync is running

Elsewhere

Path	Purpose	Safe to delete?
`~/.local/bin/dotsync`	the binary the background agent runs, unless Homebrew or apt installed dotsync	reinstall with `init` or the install script
`~/Library/LaunchAgents/io.github.dotsync.plist`	the background agent on macOS	use `dotsync agent uninstall`
`~/.config/systemd/user/dotsync.service`, `dotsync.timer`	the background agent on Linux with systemd	use `dotsync agent uninstall`
a line in your crontab ending in `# dotsync-agent`	the background agent on Linux without systemd	use `dotsync agent uninstall`

If the state file goes missing

If state.json is unreadable, dotsync sets it aside. On the next sync, every file that differs from the repository becomes a conflict for you to review.
If it’s deleted, every entry counts as newly managed on this machine, as on a fresh init. Differing local files are backed up and replaced, or become conflicts if on_existing is "conflict".

Either way, files that match the repository are simply recorded again, and nothing is replaced without a backup.