Files and folders
Frost keeps the application, your settings and its cache in separate folders on your computer.
#The application
| System | Application folder |
|---|---|
| macOS | ~/Library/Application Support/frost/app |
| Linux | ~/.local/share/frost/app, or $XDG_DATA_HOME/frost/app |
| Windows | %LocalAppData%\frost\app |
The application folder holds the bundled runtime and each installed version. Keep it whole.
The frost launcher is in /usr/local/bin or ~/.local/bin on macOS and Linux, and in %LocalAppData%\frost\bin on Windows, unless you chose another folder when installing. The Git Bash installer uses ~/bin instead. With npm or pnpm, frost is wherever they put global commands. See Installing Frost.
#Settings and key
| File | macOS and Linux | Windows |
|---|---|---|
| Settings | ~/.config/frost/config.toml | %AppData%\frost\config.toml |
| Key | ~/.config/frost/key | %AppData%\frost\key |
| SSH key for a self-hosted server | ~/.config/frost/ssh/frost_ed25519 | %AppData%\frost\ssh\frost_ed25519 |
#Cache
| File | macOS and Linux | Windows |
|---|---|---|
| Record of what's uploaded | ~/.cache/frost/manifest-<repo>.jsonl | %LocalAppData%\frost\manifest-<repo>.jsonl |
| Where your backups were last opened | ~/.cache/frost/storage-<config>.json | %LocalAppData%\frost\storage-<config>.json |
| Latest update check | ~/.cache/frost/update.json | %LocalAppData%\frost\update.json |
| When the scheduled job was set up and your last backup ran | ~/.cache/frost/schedule-<config>.json | %LocalAppData%\frost\schedule-<config>.json |
| Scheduled backup log | ~/.cache/frost/frost.log | %LocalAppData%\frost\frost.log |
With systemd, scheduled backups log to the journal instead of frost.log. See Automatic backups, which also lists where the scheduled job lives.
The record of what's uploaded is disposable. If you delete it, the next backup rebuilds it from your storage and reads all your files again. Restores don't need it. Next to it is a .lock file that keeps two Frost processes from writing at once. Deleting the lock file doesn't stop a running Frost.
#Changing the folders
On macOS and Linux, Frost follows XDG_CONFIG_HOME and XDG_CACHE_HOME. FROST_CONFIG_DIR and FROST_CACHE_DIR override both, and --config-dir overrides the config folder for one command.
If you change these folders, run frost init again so the scheduled job uses them too.