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The .csf and .psf files that I have are very old and must have been there when my project was compiled with older versions of Quartus (I am now using 7.1).
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If you are using a Quartus version that uses .qpf and .qsf, then Quartus is ignoring the old .psf, .csf, .esf, .ssf, and similar .?sf files.
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I have always wondered what the significance of the db folder is (because it is a large folder). The db folder is only used for incremental compilation?
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The db folder stores database files Quartus uses during compilation and the compilation results that allow you to display the compilation report in the GUI when you reopen the project later.
If you enabled smart compilation mode, Quartus checks whether results already exist in the db for a step like Analysis & Synthesis (the step that smart compilation mode is usually used for) so that it can skip the step if there have been no changes affecting that step. I didn't mention this before because you can reproduce the compilation results by compiling with smart compilation on and without the db directory; Quartus will just run all the compilation steps.
I was thinking there was something else Quartus stores in the db directory, but I still don't remember what it is. Incremental compilation is probably the only case for which you must keep the db directory (and even then you can reproduce the results without it if you repeat the entire sequence of incremental compilation steps).
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[A]re any of the following files needed by compilation? ACV, DONE, DPF, ECO, EQN, FLD, QMSG, Crystal Reports, INC, JDI, PIN, PPL, QMSG, QWS, SMSG, SSF, SUMMARY.
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.done, .eqn (optional equations files), .qmsg, .pin (pin-out report), .smsg (suppressed messages), .rpt (complete report), and .summary (summary report) files are output files that will be regenerated when you recompile. My preference is to keep the .rpt files. I like to compare new and old .rpt files as a check that I have successfully reproduced old compilation results. They also let you look at the compilation results in a text editor (but not in the nice report window in the Quartus GUI) without recompiling.
Current Quartus versions have an ECO capability documented in the Quartus handbook. As I vaguely recall, however, the .eco file is a file from Quartus versions long ago that you do not need to keep.
I think .inc is the extension of AHDL files that people sometimes have project archive save in a .qar. It is usually best not to save those files. Yours probably are for megafunctions, and saving these files can cause a problem when the megafunction changes in a newer version of Quartus if you are otherwise using the new Quartus library for the rest of the files for the megafunction.
The MegaWizard for some megafunctions and MegaCores generates .ppf Pin Planner files. You need to keep them only if you want to use them later in the Pin Planner.
I found something saying the .qws file is required, but I think it is not. I think it stores just things like window positions for the GUI. I typically do not keep this file.
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