Evolution: Starting Over

[c. marlow]

Hi,

I am trying to erase everything in Evolution and start it over as if I
had just installed Fedora and Evolution

I asked on Reddit and I got this far:

I was able to do:

rm -rf ~/.config/evolution

rm -rf ~/.local/share/evolution

rm -rf ~/.cache/evolution

But when I get to:

dconf reset /org/gnome/evolution/

is where the trouble starts... 
I can't get this command to work:

[chris@fedora ~]$ sudo dconf -f reset /org/gnome/evolution/ 
[sudo] password for chris: 
error: unknown command -f

Usage:
  dconf COMMAND [ARGS...]

Commands:
  help              Show this information
  read              Read the value of a key
  list              List the contents of a dir
  write             Change the value of a key
  reset             Reset the value of a key or dir
  compile           Compile a binary database from keyfiles
  update            Update the system databases
  watch             Watch a path for changes
  dump              Dump an entire subpath to stdout
  load              Populate a subpath from stdin

Use 'dconf help COMMAND' to get detailed help.

[chris@fedora ~]$ sudo dconf reset /org/gnome/evolution/ -f
error: -f must be given to (recursively) reset entire directories

Usage:
  dconf reset [-f] PATH

Reset a key or dir.  -f is required for dirs.

Arguments:
  PATH        Either a KEY or DIR
  KEY         A key path (starting, but not ending with '/')
  DIR         A directory path (starting and ending with '/')

[chris@fedora ~]$

Any ideas on what I should do?

=======================
Thanks,
Chris

Please send *ALL* off list conversations to [e-mail]
Otherwise, I will never see it.

[Branko Grubić]

On Wed, 2022-02-23 at 07:40 -0600, c. marlow wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I am trying to erase everything in Evolution and start it over as if
> I
> had just installed Fedora and Evolution
>
> I asked on Reddit and I got this far:
>
> I was able to do:
>
> rm -rf ~/.config/evolution
>
> rm -rf ~/.local/share/evolution
>
> rm -rf ~/.cache/evolution
>
> But when I get to:
>
> dconf reset /org/gnome/evolution/
>
> is where the trouble starts... 
> I can't get this command to work:
>
> [chris@fedora ~]$ sudo dconf -f reset /org/gnome/evolution/ 
> [sudo] password for chris: 
> error: unknown command -f
>
> Usage:
>   dconf COMMAND [ARGS...]
>
> Commands:
>   help              Show this information
>   read              Read the value of a key
>   list              List the contents of a dir
>   write             Change the value of a key
>   reset             Reset the value of a key or dir
>   compile           Compile a binary database from keyfiles
>   update            Update the system databases
>   watch             Watch a path for changes
>   dump              Dump an entire subpath to stdout
>   load              Populate a subpath from stdin
>
> Use 'dconf help COMMAND' to get detailed help.
>
> [chris@fedora ~]$ sudo dconf reset /org/gnome/evolution/ -f
> error: -f must be given to (recursively) reset entire directories
>
> Usage:
>   dconf reset [-f] PATH
>
> Reset a key or dir.  -f is required for dirs.
>
> Arguments:
>   PATH        Either a KEY or DIR
>   KEY         A key path (starting, but not ending with '/')
>   DIR         A directory path (starting and ending with '/')
>
> [chris@fedora ~]$
>
> Any ideas on what I should do?

Hi,

Never tried to do this, but could be argument position issue:
it says:

... reset [-f] PATH ...

But you only tried `-f` before `reset` and after `PATH`, not after
`reset` and before `PATH`, `-f` is an argument to `reset` and maybe
position dependent.

Regards,
Branko

[Tim]

On Wed, 2022-02-23 at 07:40 -0600, c. marlow wrote:
> [chris@fedora ~]$ sudo dconf -f reset /org/gnome/evolution/ 
> [sudo] password for chris: 
> error: unknown command -f
>
> [chris@fedora ~]$ sudo dconf reset /org/gnome/evolution/ -f
> error: -f must be given to (recursively) reset entire directories
>
> Usage:
>   dconf reset [-f] PATH

You haven't tried the syntax shown in the example:

dconf reset -f /org/gnome/evolution/

I'm not sure why you're doing this with sudo.  Aren't you resetting
your own user-account's dconf parameters?

[greg]

> You haven't tried the syntax shown in the example:
>     dconf reset -f /org/gnome/evolution/

This syntax does work, I used it as in
dconf reset -f /org/gnome/terminal/
> I'm not sure why you're doing this with sudo.  Aren't you resetting
> your own user-account's dconf parameters?

Ye, that is the case: the ~/.config/dconf/user file gets modified.
One can back this file up and later simply restore it if, e.g.,
modifications are not good/desirable.

Also one can do the configuration backup as in
dconf dump / >root.dconf.dump.f35.orig
and later restore it as in
dconf load / < root.dconf.dump.f35.orig

greg

[Tim]

Tim:
> > I'm not sure why you're doing this with sudo.  Aren't you resetting
> > your own user-account's dconf parameters?

Greg:
> Ye, that is the case: the ~/.config/dconf/user file gets modified.

If so, then definitely you wouldn't want to use sudo.  Using sudo like
in the first message would be trying to modify the root user's
configuration.

Most things on Linux are configured for the user who's logged in.  Few
things are configured for the whole computer.  If a person uses sudo or
"su -" to modify a setting, quite often they'll end up modifying the
root user's configuration, not the system.

[greg]

> If so, then definitely you wouldn't want to use sudo.  Using sudo like
> in the first message would be trying to modify the root user's
> configuration.
>
> Most things on Linux are configured for the user who's logged in.  Few
> things are configured for the whole computer.  If a person uses sudo or
> "su -" to modify a setting, quite often they'll end up modifying the
> root user's configuration, not the system.

I am not sure if there are readers on this list for these obvious things.
Regardless, "you" above should not refer to me, if it does.

greg

[Tim]

On Sat, 2022-02-26 at 00:07 +0100, greg wrote:
> I am not sure if there are readers on this list for these obvious
> things.
> Regardless, "you" above should not refer to me, if it does.

It's the global "you," or "not me."

[Patrick O'Callaghan]

On Sat, 2022-02-26 at 20:35 +1030, Tim via users wrote:
> On Sat, 2022-02-26 at 00:07 +0100, greg wrote:
> > I am not sure if there are readers on this list for these obvious
> > things.
> > Regardless, "you" above should not refer to me, if it does.
>
> It's the global "you," or "not me."

Or as we say in my part of the world, "youse", and in certain other
places "y'all" :-)

poc

[Mike Wright]

On 2/26/22 03:36, Patrick O'Callaghan wrote:
> On Sat, 2022-02-26 at 20:35 +1030, Tim via users wrote:
> > On Sat, 2022-02-26 at 00:07 +0100, greg wrote:
> > > I am not sure if there are readers on this list for these obvious
> > > things.
> > > Regardless, "you" above should not refer to me, if it does.
> >
> > It's the global "you," or "not me."
>
> Or as we say in my part of the world, "youse", and in certain other
> places "y'all" :-)

My dad's mom had an extraordinarily wild life in Chicago during the 20's 
and 30's.  She always addressed us grandsons as "youse guys".  Makes me 
laugh whenever I hear the word.

[Cameron Simpson]

On 26Feb2022 20:35, Tim  wrote:
> On Sat, 2022-02-26 at 00:07 +0100, greg wrote:
> > I am not sure if there are readers on this list for these obvious
> > things.
> > Regardless, "you" above should not refer to me, if it does.
>
> It's the global "you," or "not me."

So, "you" configured for the whole computer then :-)

I suspect part of the OP's intent with the reset is in case he, or some 
earlier install process, had differing defaults in the global area.  
Aplenty of things install a global config, if only to make the available 
configs apparent.

Cheers,
Cameron Simpson

[Tim]

On Thu, 2022-03-03 at 08:22 +1100, Cameron Simpson wrote:
> I suspect part of the OP's intent with the reset is in case he, or
> some earlier install process, had differing defaults in the global
> area. Aplenty of things install a global config, if only to make the
> available configs apparent.

That may be, but I have my doubts about an email program and global
configuration.  If they're trying to factory-reset its settings, I
strongly suspect that they need to do that option as themselves.