KDiff3 won't save its settings

[Benoît Thébaudeau]

This is a consistent issue that occurs in my Ubuntu 12.10. The steps to reproduce the issue are:
 - launch kdiff3,
 - go to the menu Settings > Configure kdiff3...,
 - change something, e.g. uncheck Directory > Backup files (.orig),
 - click the OK button,
 - go to the menu Settings > Configure kdiff3...,
 - check the changes made -> OK, still there,
 - quit kdiff3,
 - launch kdiff3,
 - go to the menu Settings > Configure kdiff3...,
 - check the changes made -> KO, vanished, were not saved to file (e.g. Directory > Backup files (.orig) is still checked).

After these steps, the contents of ~/.kde/share/config/kdiff3rc (access rights: 0600) are unchanged.

However, if this file is edited to apply manually the desired settings, and if kdiff3 is then launched, the new settings are taken into account. Hence, this is really a settings saving issue.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.10
Package: kdiff3 0.9.96-4
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.5.0-17.28-generic 3.5.5
Uname: Linux 3.5.0-17-generic i686
ApportVersion: 2.6.1-0ubuntu6
Architecture: i386
Date: Fri Nov 2 20:02:43 2012
InstallationDate: Installed on 2012-10-31 (2 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.10 "Quantal Quetzal" - Release i386 (20121017.2)
MarkForUpload: True
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: kdiff3
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Benoît Thébaudeau (btheb)]

Note that I've uncommented the line setting umask to 022 in my .profile, but I don't think that's related since chmod'ing ~/.kde/share/config/kdiff3rc to 0777 does not help.

[Sam Van der Borght (s-sam)]

I encountered the same problem on Arch Linux.
It created the folder ~/.kde4/share/config with file kdiff3rc

I manually adjusted the config file and the settings get loaded from there.

[Benoît Thébaudeau (btheb)]

This issue no longer exists in Ubuntu 13.04.

[Benoît Thébaudeau (btheb)]

For some reason, this bug is now back in my Ubuntu 13.04. I don't know what may have changed since my first tests. Could it be that I have first tested from the launcher, then from the command line?

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Michael Mess (michael-michaelmess)]

This bug is quite annoying for me when editing multiple files:
Each time kdiff3 is launched by a script and as workaround for bug 999925 I have to choose another font to get a readable display. When work is finished for one file, I have to quit KDiff3 and when it is launched next time by the script, it has forgotten the font setting and presents an unreadable display again.
Thus I have to choose the font for each of the >100 files to diff. :-(

[Benoît Thébaudeau (btheb)]

Still broken in Ubuntu 14.04.

[Benoît Thébaudeau (btheb)]

Still broken in Ubuntu 14.10.

[Benoît Thébaudeau (btheb)]

Still broken in Ubuntu 15.04.

[Kjell Morgenstern (kmorgenstern)]

Found a workaround on Ubuntu 14.04 :

* delete ~/.kde/share/config/kdiff3rc
* touch ~/.kde/share/config/kdiff3rc
* start kdiff3 from console, no parameters
kdiff3 opens with a dialog, asking for files you want to diff. Select configure in the lower left.
* configure as desired, e.g. change the font to Liberation Mono, Regular, size 10 to work around bug 999925.
* exit kdiff3

kdiff3rc now contains the new config, including a line
"Font=Liberation Mono,10,-1,5,50,0,0,0,0,0"

[Kjell Morgenstern (kmorgenstern)]

Just for the records, the original kdiff3rc did not have much in common with the new one created by kdiff3 when applying the workaround, and looked like the following:

cat ~/.kde/share/config/kdiff3rc
[MainWindow]
Height 1200=1201
State=AAAA/wAAAAD9AAAAAAAAB0cAAARfAAAABAAAAAQAAAAIAAAACPwAAAABAAAAAgAAAAEAAAAWAG0AYQBpAG4AVABvAG8AbABCAGEAcgEAAAAA/////wAAAAAAAAAA
ToolBarsMovable=Disabled
Width 1920=1921

[Benoît Thébaudeau (btheb)]

Still broken in Ubuntu 15.10. The settings can be saved the first time KDiff3 is launched following install. The following times, they can no longer be saved.

[Till Schmalmack (schmalmack)]

Still broken in Ubuntu 16.04. Apart from that, I was not able to have the font saved into ~/.kde/share/config/kdiff3rc, not even after its deletion and a new launch. Although the config file is created at the moment I apply new (font-)settings, the file does not contain font information (apparently none of the settings of the configuration dialog), there's only a [MainWindow] section with window geometry (see comment #13 above).
Somewhat annoying, indeed...