Rename Linux home folder structure to system language

Question

I have installed the Ubuntu distro first in Portuguese.

Then, I decided I wanted the English language. I would like that the default folders like "Desktop" and "Documents" were renamed to this names, instead of staying in their Portuguese equivalent.

I can not guarantee this, but I am almost certain I did successfully convert the folder names from Portuguese to English on a previous install when I decided to change the language. So, I suppose this is possible.

Any ideas what I should do?

Answer 1

The names of these directories are in ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs. The file is read by the X session startup scripts.

I don't know offhand how to tell a running desktop environment that the desired names have changed. You could edit the file, rename the directories, and immediately log out and back in.

Answer 2

Editing the file Gilles already pointed to could be done from a text session. Use Ctrl+Alt+F2 to open tty2, log in, and then kill X11. After that it's a simple

$ nano ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs

And then something like startx, depending on the WM you use, to start your WM again.

(I do not know whether Gilles' solution works, this is just a slightly more elaborate explanation of the 'how'.)