I have a few projects that I’m working on. Some still in progress, some complete. As I upgrade KiCad, I open, save and close each project, both schematic and PCB layout. I try to do this every 2 or 3 upgrades. Most of the time, I get a pop up that says it is updating things and it looks fine when it is done. It seems to be updating the files to the new ways of doing things. I started out with version 5 ages ago and am up to 7.0.9. I use Gentoo Linux by the way. First question, how often should this really be done? Is doing it from every major upgrade from like 5 to 6 and then 6 to 7 enough? Should it be done more often than that as I’m doing now? Is there any method a person can implement to be sure things update smoothly?
Second thing, I think it creates backup files. I already have a backup, couple actually. I’d like to clean out any unneeded files. This is a example of one project. Some look obvious with the bak on the end but pretty sure others are basically duplicates as well. I’m not sure about the .zip files Here is a file list using tree command.
In that list, what must be saved, what can be deleted?
Thanks for any tips or ideas. I’m also thinking others might find these two questions helpful, answers anyway.
To any helpful mod. If you need to add tags, that would be great. I think I put it in the right category. Maybe?? Don’t quite get how this forum software really works, yet.
The third digit of the Kicad program is for bug fixes only. No new features. eg. 7.0.0 is the same as 7.0.10 except 7.0.10 has fewer bugs, hopefully.
Not so sure about your second question. Others may comment.
Your prl, pro, pcb & sch should be in your project backup. You only want the newest and most correct version.
Cache and Rescue are leftover from 5. They can go.
Euhm, no. Those are all old files. Left overs from KiCad V5 and can be deleted too. The new files have the “kicad-” prefix in their extension (Starting from KiCad V6).
For the rest, what you want to keep depends on your personal preference. The absolute minimum would be:
All the zip files in the backup folder are backups, they can be deleted, but you’d better have another backup strategy in place before you do so (Those files should not be added to a git repository for example)
The “-cache” and “-rescue” libraries are also left overs from KiCad V5 It is possible your project still links to them but that is not very important and easy to fix.
Starting from KiCad V6 all used schematic symbols and PCB footprints are saved inside the “[project].kicad-sch” and “[project].kicad-pcb” files. As a result, you ** could ** delete all other libraries (and this makes the sym-lib-table and fp-lib-table files sort of superfluous too). but just that you could delete them does not mean it’s a good idea to delete them. You have to think about how you want to manage libraries yourself.
The [project].kicad_prl is probably also not very important. I think it holds some GUI settings related to the project, but they go back to defaults when the file is deleted. the [project].net is just a netlist. KiCad does not use these internally, and if you need it you should generate a fresh version anyway. The report.txt is also just some data saved from an internal dialog.
A simple way to determine what can go is to look at the file dates. Do some work on a project (both schematic and PCB) for a few days, and then any file older then about a week can probably be deleted. (Except for libraries, those are a separate topic).
I finally got a few minutes to play with this. I made a backup copy first of course, just in case something went wrong. I left only the files with extensions you listed. I then opened the project, saved both schematic and PCB. When I closed it, it added one file that has the name fp-info-cache. It only has the number zero in it so not sure what it does. It didn’t exist before. Project is a simple one but has several different default components.
Anyway, the info you provided worked fine. Saving those four files leaves all the info KiCad needs. No idea on new file tho.
Thanks for the info. I’m sure this will be helpful to others as well.
Oh, moderator, feel free to edit the subject or add info that will help others who are searching for this info if needed. I clicked the solution button to. I think it worked. It turned green. This forum uses software that has a lot of nifty features but are totally new to me.
paulvdh, I see you post a lot. I read a lot of threads. You are one very helpful person.
fp-info-cache is as you might guess a cache. It can be deleted safely. It will be regenerated next time you open the layout or footprint editors costing some CPU cycles. So it doesn’t need to be archived or checked into a VCS.
Don’t quite get how this forum software really works, yet.
