Installed packages confusion

[dutch]

I’m a long-time but non-expert ST user using it to write prose. Recently, I was trying to copy my customization setup over to a different computer, and I discovered my folder arrangements are a little wonky. All my fault I’m sure, but I have “Installed Packages” in two location:

[A] sublime-text/Installed Packages

and

[B] sublime-text/Packages
(the packages are at same folder level as User)

see pic for clarification

FWIW, [A] seems to act as the authoritative set, as it contains more packages than [B] and they all seem to be working.

Three questions:

1. How might I have inadvertently done this semi-duplication of packages?

2. Is it safe to delete the packages (other than User) that appear in [B]?

3. When I’m reproducing my system with customizations on a different computer, will it then be sufficient to copy over the set from [A] and my packages/user directory?

Thanks for any thoughts.

[gbird]

FWIW, I have the same. Mostly the contents of these folders are different, but occasionally the same. For me, you will notice the ‘installed packages’ folder contain the fully packaged up .sublime-package file, whereas the ‘packages’ folder contains the unzipped folders and files.

Where the is a double-up of the same plugin, my (uneducated) guess is that the developer first shipped it as the unpackaged version and then subsequently provided the same plugin as a .sublime-package file. That’s just a guess though.

What I can’t explain is why your screenshot shows unzipped folders in the .sublime-package folder. Mind you, if everything is working, I would simply leave thisngs well alone … sleeping dogs, and all that.

[dutch]

Thanks for chiming in, gbird. At least I’m not alone! I did fool around with it some today, and I deleted the “Markdown” and “SideBarEnhancements” folders that were beneath my Packages folder… to no ill effect! I don’t know the answer to zipped vs unzipped question.

I completely agree about letting sleeping dogs lie, and that’s what I usually do. I’ve got my ST writing setup so nicely tweaked and optimized–it’s one of my favorite things in life. But every once in awhile, as recently, when I’m trying to replicate the setup on a different computer, I’m tempted to start unraveling the mystery.

[dutch]

gbird, check this out. I just took the Zip question to perplexity.ai. If true, this is enlightening:

How Sublime handles .sublime-package files

• By default, a package installed as Something.sublime-package stays as a single ZIP‑style file and is read directly from there, not unpacked into a directory.

• A package is auto‑extracted into a real folder only if it contains a .no-sublime-package marker file; in that case its contents are unpacked into the Packages/ tree.​