Introducion to GConf

GConf simplifies the administration of preferences for GNOME Desktop users. GConf enables system administrators to do the following:

  • Set mandatory values for particular preferences for all users. In this way, system administrators can control whether users can update particular preferences.
  • Set default values for particular preferences for all users.
  • Use suggested values for preferences that are specified in definition files for the preferences.
  • Read documentation on each preference.

GConf also notifies applications when a preference value changes, locally or across a network. In this way, when you change a preference, all applications that use the preference are immediately updated.

GConf has the following components:

  • A repository of user preferences.
  • A daemon, gconfd-2.
  • A command line tool, gconftool-2.