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Where to find Xournal++ files

When you download and install Xournal++ you may wonder where all the files get stored. Note that you can store your own Xournal++ documents (.xopp-files) wherever you like (up to file permissions). Typically you would store them somewhere in your user folder. Autosave files get stored in the same folder, just with a . at the beginning and with a autosave.xopp-ending, once the xopp-file has been stored. So foo.xopp will be autosaved under .foo.autosave.xopp. If the document has not been stored yet, it will be autosaved in the cache folder, see below. This section explains where files get stored automatically either during installation or while using Xournal++. The following table provides an overwiew, detailing typical file locations:

Linux (.deb installer) MacOS (.app-bundle) MS Windows (.exe installer)
Binary folder /usr/share/bin Xournal++.app/Contents/MacOS C:\Programs\Xournal++\bin
Shared resources folder /usr/share/xournalpp Xournal++.app/Contents/Resources C:\Programs\Xournal++\share\xournalpp
Localizations folder /usr/share/locale Xournal++.app/Contents/Resources/share/locale C:\Programs\Xournal++\share\locale
Config folder /home/<user>/.config/xournalpp /Users/<user>/.config/xournalpp C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\xournalpp
Cache folder /home/<user>/.cache/xournalpp /Users/<user>/.cache/xournalpp C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\xournalpp
Temporary folder /tmp /tmp C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Temp

Note

On Windows, the cache folder is hidden by default. You will either need to set hidden items as visible in File Explorer or copy & paste the location manually into the File Explorer search bar (with modifications for your username).

In accordance with the XDG Base Directory Specification the Config Folder and Cache Folder can be defined by the environment variables $XDG_CONFIG_HOME and $XDG_CACHE_HOME, respectively. The Temporary folder can be defined by $TMPDIR on Linux/MacOS or $TEMP$ on MS Windows. Below the contents of all the tabulated folders are explained. Some platform specific files not tabulated here are summarized at the end of this section.

Binary folder

The binary folder contains the executables for running Xournal++. On Linux and MacOS a thumbnailer is included for generating thumbnails in the file manager.

Shared resources folder

The resources folder contains:

  • the LaTeX templates (under Linux and Windows in the resources subfolder)
  • plugins subfolder, containing all Lua plugins
  • ui subfolder, containing
    • all .glade files, defining the user interface,
    • all Xournal++ icons, including the application icon and all toolbar icons
    • the toolbar configuration file toolbar.ini
    • the pagetemplates configuration file pagetemplates.ini
    • the css-style file xournalpp.css

Localizations folder

The localizations folder contains the translations of Xournal++ in all supported languages. These are stored in files named xournalpp.mo

Config folder

The config folder contains configuration files like

  • the settings.xml file, which stores Xournal++ settings
  • metadata subfolder, which contains metadata of previously opened files
  • the colornames.ini file, which allows to configure colors

Cache folder

The cache folder contains the following subfolders:

  • errorlogs which stores crash logs
  • autosaves which stores autosaves of new non-saved documents

Temporary folder

Temporary files generated by the LaTeX tool get stored in the temporary folder.

Platform specific files

Some files installed by Xournal++ are platform-specific and are not contained on all platforms.

  • On Linux: there are a desktop file, a copyright file, a changelog, man pages, metainfo and mime type files. The full list of files and file paths of a Xournal++ installation can be obtained in the terminal via dpkg -L xournalpp
  • On MacOS: there are an Info.plist, a pkginfo and a xournalpp.icns icon for the .app-bundle, Adwaita and hicolor icons themes, diverse libraries (.dylib's) and folders related to gtk/gdk and glib
  • On MS Windows: there is an uninstaller Uninstall.exe, diverse libraires (.dll's), Adwaita and hicolor icons themes and folders related to gtk/gdk and glib