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Chapter 3. GSettings and dconf

One of the major changes in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 is the transition from GConf (for storing user preferences) to the combination of the GSettings high-level configuration system and the dconf back end.
GConf
As mentioned above, the GConf configuration system has been replaced by two systems:
  • the GSettings API, and
  • the dconf back end which serves as a low-level configuration system and program that collects system hardware and software configuration details in a single compact binary format.
Both the gsettings command-line tool and the dconf utility are used to view and change user settings. The gsettings utility does so directly in the terminal, while the dconf utility uses the dconf-editor GUI for editing a configuration database. See Chapter 9, Configuring Desktop with GSettings and dconf for more information on dconf-editor and the gsettings utility.
gconftool
The gconftool-2 tool has been replaced by gsettings and dconf. Likewise, gconf-editor has been replaced by dconf-editor.
Overriding
The concept of keyfiles has been introduced in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7: the dconf utility allows the system administrator to override the default settings by directly installing defaults overrides. For example, setting the default background for all users is now executed by using a dconf override placed in a keyfile in the keyfile directory, such as /etc/dconf/db/local.d/). To learn more about default values and overriding, see Section 9.5, “Configuring Custom Default Values”.
Locking the Settings
The dconf system now allows individual settings or entire settings subpaths to be locked down to prevent user customization. For more information on how to lock settings, see Section 9.5.1, “Locking Down Specific Settings”.
NFS and dconf
Using the dconf utility on home directories shared over NFS requires additional configuration. See Section 9.7, “Storing User Settings Over NFS” for information on this topic.

Getting More Information

See Chapter 9, Configuring Desktop with GSettings and dconf for more information on using GSettings and dconf to configure user settings.