When migrating jira to another server, why is it necessary to copy the home directory from the old jira instance?

[Idan Noti]

This question is in reference to Atlassian Documentation: Migrating JIRA to Another Server

I get it that it is necessary to backup the database, but why the home directory?

I'm interested in moving from windows to linux machine.

[Ben Arundel]

The home directory contains all your JIRA config such as where the database is etc

have a read of this.

[Idan Noti]

Are these files portable between operating systems?