[Ardour-Users] Keep all preferences

[Robin Gareus]

On 11/12/2018 10:57 AM, Susanne Billig wrote:
> Hello from Berlin, 

Hello from Charlottenburg,

> is it possible to keep all preferences (keyboard shortcuts and program preferences) when installing a new version of ardour? 

No, not without manual intervention.

The long answer depends: major version updates, minor version update?

The preferences are kept between minor version updates and ardour offers
to optionally copy them for major version updates.

But custom colors, and keyboard shortcuts are versioned for each minor
version. Mainly because the GUI can change and the settings are no
longer compatible with the new version.

As for "all preferences", favorite plugins, session and track templates,
custom export presets should be kept as-is between minor version updates.

> I find it extremely difficult to rechange them all after the installation of a new program version, since it is not possible to search of keyboard shortcuts and they have to be found in a complicated way in the keyboard shortcuts window.

Since keyboard shortcuts can change, there is no sane way for Ardour to
re-map them automatically. One example is the recent change to use "a"
for the new audition feature.

You do have a point though, the Keyboard-shortcuts dialog isn't great
and should be overhauled.

Meanwhile you can copy/edit the config files in the preferences folder
manually, for example for keyboard shortcuts on GNU/Linux:

from
   ~/.config/ardour5/ardour-5.8.keys
to
   ~/.config/ardour5/ardour-5.12.keys

or custom colors to ~/.config/ardour5/my-dark-ardour-5.12.colors

All of those are text files. If you know what key shortcuts you have
customized, a diff tool (e.g. `meld`) may make the edit simple.

The preference folder on MacOS/X is $HOME/Library/Preferences/Ardour5/
and on windows: %localappdata%\ardour5\


HTH,
robin


PS. Keyboard shortcuts have changed significantly since major versions
3, 4. The shortcuts are now context dependent: Ardour allows different
shortcuts in the editor and mixer window.  There is no easy way to
migrate custom stortcuts from older major versions.