Where is application data stored?

Question

On Windows, I often find the executable of an application associated with its data inside Program Files\AppXXX\. The equivalent executable can be found under /usr/bin, but where is its data located? For example, I installed MikTex but I couldn't find its data. Thank you.

Answer 1

If the package is installed through the package management system, you can show its files with the command

dpkg -L package-name

Answer 2

In addition to enzotibs answer, some packages separate their shared/static data from the main package. Examples includes hedgewars (static data in hedgewars-data) and apache2 (binaries in apache2.2-bin and images+manuals in apache2.2-common, this is shared among the MPMs prefork, worker event and itk).

To get the immediate package dependency, use:

apt-cache depends package-name

Alternatively, use http://packages.ubuntu.com/ which shows a small description for each package too. For example, the apache2 package points to apache2.2-common. The filelist is available through the link in the Files column at the Download table.

dpkg -L package-name show files which are installed by the package management system. Sometimes an installed file is not available in that list because the package installation script bypasses the package manager. There is nothing you can do against that other than guessing from the file name.

Should you wonder which package a file belongs to, run:

dpkg -S /path/to/file

This will list each package associated with the file. If you just provide a file name, you could get a long list with all files matching the search criteria.

Answer 3

What do you mean by data? Do you mean the configuration files that the program uses to set the preferences that you chose in the program? If so, then they are kept in your home folder. They are so called hidden files. Use the file manager View menu to set Show hidden files and you will then see in the home folder a lot more folders. Each will have a dot ( . ) in front of it as part of the folder name. There will be folders for the applications.

regards