Files and directories to preserve across upgrade

[Ross Boylan <ross@biostat.ucsf.edu>]

I upgraded one machine from KDE 3.5.3 to 3.5.4 and discovered that some
of my defaults got lost.  In particular, my fonts both in and outside of
KDE became terrible (that is, non KDE apps running under KDE, such as
firefox). The list archives suggested setting use anti-aliasing to true
(which it already was) and set hinting style to full (it was medium).
Setting hinting to full seemed to help a lot.

Before upgrading another machine, I'd like to preserve my other settings
as well (e.g. the font names I picked).  What files and directories
should I save to do so?  I'm aware that settings outside of .kde
and .kderc are relevant, but I'm not sure exactly which ones.

This "preservation" is just for reference.  Is there a way to keep the
values?  If I just copy the old files over the new ones, will that work?

Is anyone aware whether the upgrade affects any preferences other than
fonts?  Is this just a libcairo issue?

I wish KDE were not so inclined to blow away customizations when
upgrading.

Also, perhaps it would make sense for Debian to set the hinting style to
full by default.

Thanks.
-- 
Ross Boylan                                      wk:  (415) 514-8146
185 Berry St #5700                               ross@biostat.ucsf.edu
Dept of Epidemiology and Biostatistics           fax: (415) 514-8150
University of California, San Francisco
San Francisco, CA 94107-1739                     hm:  (415) 550-1062