> the system kept trying to replace folders in their original places.

This is the file that you want:

  $ cat ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs 
  XDG_DESKTOP_DIR="$HOME/"
  XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR="$HOME/Downloads"
  XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR="$HOME/"
  XDG_PUBLICSHARE_DIR="$HOME/"
  XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR="$HOME/"
  XDG_MUSIC_DIR="$HOME/"
  XDG_PICTURES_DIR="$HOME/"
  XDG_VIDEOS_DIR="$HOME/"

That helps, but be warned that there are still programs running around that just hardcode their paths

Cries in nixpkgs

(Anyone who tried to package a program that hardcodes the “usual” binary paths know the pain)

Doesn't nix itself hardcode the nix store path though?

Afaik there is an option to change it, but it is not advisable as that will break the binary cache and you are left with compiling everything yourself. This is due to a technical limitation in that different packages can contain paths everywhere and thus they are inherently part of the resulting hash, on which other packages can depend.

You’re clearly a more capable user than me, but even so, take care. The time I accidentally moved /etc has scarred me for life.

Early on in my Linux-using-life I made the mistake of deleting /etc. That was a learning experience like no other :)

Since Live CDs/Flash drives were invented, I wouldn't worry about this stuff any longer. Certainly have your personal files in a centralized location and backed up first.

Probably the easiest way to experiment these days is to create a VM and make snapshot, then start knocking down walls, just to see when and where the house collapses. Then revert and try something new.

There's a computer game that deletes random files when you make a mistake or lose.

There could be a competition!

A couple of weeks after moving to UNIX from MSDOS, I thought I'd remove lots of unnecessary 'dot-directories' from the /tmp directory. I was root as I had no concept of being a 'normal user'.

So I ran two simple commands:

     cd /tmp
     rm -fr .*

and wondered why it was taking so long. <grin>

At least that doesn't happen today anymore. From bash:

> When a pattern is used for pathname expansion, the character ``.'' at the start of a name or immediately following a slash must be matched explicitly, unless the shell option dotglob is set. The filenames ``.'' and ``..'' must always be matched explicitly, even if dotglob is set.

I did that on my NAS a few years ago. I had copied in a bunch of directories from a mac and they all had tons of dot files in each dir that were showing up on my windows machines. I popped open a terminal and did the exact same thing and wiped most of the NAS out =P Good thing I had it mirrored with my other synology.