Applications settings lost after moving from stable to git

[yan12125]

Overview

With recent git commits, the configuration file is moved from ~/.config/keepassxc/keepassxc.ini to ~/.config/KeePassXC/keepassxc.ini (changed cases), but there is no migration path. As a result, application settings are lost.

I didn't run git bisect, but I believe the cause is #4665. See #4835 (comment)

Steps to Reproduce

1. Backup and remove all of ~/{.cache,.config}/{KeePassXC,keepassxc}/*.ini to make sure nothing can interfere
2. Install KeePassXC 2.5.4
3. Change some settings. For example, I enable "Show a system tray icon"
4. Uninstall KeePassXC 2.5.4 and install git. Here I use 1ad0184.

Expected Behavior

Application settings remain. I can still get a system tray icon.

Actual Behavior

Application settings are lost. I don't see a system tray icon and the "Show a system tray icon" option is unchecked.

And from strace log, ~/.config/keepassxc/keepassxc.ini is not consulted:

660558 access("/home/yen/.cache/KeePassXC/keepassxc.ini", F_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
660558 access("/home/yen/.config/KeePassXC/keepassxc.ini", F_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
660558 statx(AT_FDCWD, "/home/yen/.config/KeePassXC/keepassxc.ini", AT_STATX_SYNC_AS_STAT, STATX_ALL, 0x7ffda8154650) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
660558 statx(AT_FDCWD, "/home/yen/.config/KeePassXC/keepassxc.ini", AT_STATX_SYNC_AS_STAT, STATX_ALL, 0x7ffda81545f0) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
660558 access("/home/yen/.cache/KeePassXC/keepassxc.ini", F_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
660558 statx(AT_FDCWD, "/home/yen/.cache/KeePassXC/keepassxc.ini", AT_STATX_SYNC_AS_STAT, STATX_ALL, 0x7ffda8154650) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
660558 statx(AT_FDCWD, "/home/yen/.cache/KeePassXC/keepassxc.ini", AT_STATX_SYNC_AS_STAT, STATX_ALL, 0x7ffda81545f0) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
660558 access("/home/yen/.config/KeePassXC/keepassxc.ini", F_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
660558 openat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/yen/.config/KeePassXC/keepassxc.ini.lock", O_RDWR|O_CREAT|O_EXCL|O_CLOEXEC, 0666) = 18
660558 access("/home/yen/.config/KeePassXC/keepassxc.ini", F_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
660558 statx(AT_FDCWD, "/home/yen/.config/KeePassXC/keepassxc.ini", AT_STATX_SYNC_AS_STAT, STATX_ALL, 0x7ffda81545b0) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
660558 access("/home/yen/.config/KeePassXC/keepassxc.ini", F_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
660558 statx(AT_FDCWD, "/home/yen/.config/KeePassXC/keepassxc.ini", AT_STATX_SYNC_AS_STAT, STATX_ALL, 0x7ffda8154510) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
660558 statx(AT_FDCWD, "/home/yen/.config/KeePassXC/keepassxc.ini", AT_STATX_SYNC_AS_STAT|AT_SYMLINK_NOFOLLOW, STATX_ALL, 0x7ffda8154500) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
660558 linkat(AT_FDCWD, "/proc/self/fd/19", AT_FDCWD, "/home/yen/.config/KeePassXC/keepassxc.ini", AT_SYMLINK_FOLLOW) = 0
660558 statx(AT_FDCWD, "/home/yen/.config/KeePassXC/keepassxc.ini", AT_STATX_SYNC_AS_STAT, STATX_ALL, {stx_mask=STATX_ALL, stx_attributes=0, stx_mode=S_IFREG|0644, stx_size=26, ...}) = 0
660558 statx(AT_FDCWD, "/home/yen/.config/KeePassXC/keepassxc.ini", AT_STATX_SYNC_AS_STAT, STATX_ALL, {stx_mask=STATX_ALL, stx_attributes=0, stx_mode=S_IFREG|0644, stx_size=26, ...}) = 0
660558 access("/home/yen/.config/KeePassXC/keepassxc.ini", R_OK) = 0
660558 access("/home/yen/.config/KeePassXC/keepassxc.ini", W_OK) = 0
660558 access("/home/yen/.config/KeePassXC/keepassxc.ini", X_OK) = -1 EACCES (Permission denied)
660558 chmod("/home/yen/.config/KeePassXC/keepassxc.ini", 0644) = 0
660558 unlink("/home/yen/.config/KeePassXC/keepassxc.ini.lock") = 0
660558 access("/home/yen/.cache/KeePassXC/keepassxc.ini", F_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
660558 statx(AT_FDCWD, "/home/yen/.cache/KeePassXC/keepassxc.ini", AT_STATX_SYNC_AS_STAT, STATX_ALL, 0x7ffda8154680) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
660558 statx(AT_FDCWD, "/home/yen/.cache/KeePassXC/keepassxc.ini", AT_STATX_SYNC_AS_STAT, STATX_ALL, 0x7ffda8154620) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)

Context

KeePassXC - Version 2.6.0-snapshot
Build Type: Snapshot
Revision: 1ad0184

Qt 5.15.0
Debugging mode is disabled.

Operating system: Arch Linux
CPU architecture: x86_64
Kernel: linux 5.6.15-arch1-1

Enabled extensions:

• Auto-Type
• Browser Integration
• SSH Agent
• KeeShare (signed and unsigned sharing)
• YubiKey
• Secret Service Integration

Cryptographic libraries:
libgcrypt 1.8.5

Operating System: Arch Linux
Desktop Env: LXQt
Windowing System: X11
Package sources: the stable version from official Arch package and the git version from AUR
Filesystem: ext4, case-sensitive

[phoerious]

I wonder why Qt is capitalising the folder name all of a sudden. This is pretty inconsistent on their side.

[yan12125]

I think I found the actual cause. Here are some commits in keepassxc related to case changes (older to newer)

1. 6339d61 That commit changes the application name from keepassxc to KeePassXC.
2. 596d2cf Before that commit, the configuration path uses hard-coded folder name /keepassxc/ [1]. After that commit, QStandardPaths::AppConfigLocation is used, and the latter uses the application name as the folder name.
3. 2073f2d Before that commit, the first call to Config::instance() happens in the constructor of Application in src/gui/Application.cpp [2], which is before setApplicationName in src/main.cpp. At that time, the application name is not set and thus Qt uses the binary name [3], which is keepassxc on Linux.

Overall, the intended config path is now ~/.config/KeePassXC/keepassxc.ini.

[1] 596d2cf#diff-461928dbf0b7b4c50bab629bfe990c75L155
[2] 2073f2d#diff-3b26d22744b00bff24a5e19c5acc3542L71
[3] https://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qcoreapplication.html#applicationName-prop

[droidmonkey]

This should be fixed prior to release.

[phoerious]

Shall we stick with lowercase keepassxc? I think KeePassXC makes sense, but Linux configs tend to be all-lowercase.

[droidmonkey]

IMO revert that change and stick with lowercase... or do an explicit move of the old settings to the new directory, then process the migration.

[yan12125]

Thanks a lot for fixing this! Somehow GitHub insists the fixing commit should be merged to the develop branch before auto closing this issue. As it's already fixed, I will just close it manually.

[droidmonkey]

Yah it's a silly github bug, issues should close with the linked pr