<page xmlns="http://projectmallard.org/1.0/"
      xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its"
      type="guide" style="task"
      id="dconf">

  <info>
    <link type="guide" xref="sundry" />
    <revision pkgversion="3.8" date="2013-08-08" status="incomplete"/>
    <revision pkgversion="3.14" date="2014-06-17" status="incomplete"/>

    <credit type="author copyright">
      <name>Ekaterina Gerasimova</name>
      <email>kittykat3756@gmail.com</email>
      <years>2013</years>
    </credit>
    <credit type="collaborator">
      <name>Ryan Lortie</name>
      <email>desrt@desrt.ca</email>
      <years>2013</years>
    </credit>
    <credit type="author copyright">
      <name>Jim Campbell</name>
      <email>jcampbell@gnome.org</email>
      <years>2014</years>
    </credit>

    <include href="legal.xml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"/>

    <desc>What is <sys>dconf</sys>? How can it be used to edit configurations?</desc>
  </info>

  <title>Manage user and system settings with dconf</title>

  <!-- TODO: improve wording throughout the page -->
  <p><sys>dconf</sys> is one of the main configuration utilities in GNOME. Its
  purpose is to help you set and manage GNOME system and application
  settings.</p>

  <p>To give you an idea of the power of <sys>dconf</sys> within GNOME, a
  <sys>dconf</sys> key exists for most every setting that a user can click on
  in the GNOME desktop or in any GNOME application. In addition to this, there
  are some system and application settings that can't even be changed from
  within the user interface, but which <em>can</em> be changed by using
  <sys>dconf</sys>.</p>

  <p>As an administrator, this means that knowing how to use <sys>dconf</sys>
  will help you to customize GNOME and GNOME-based applications to best suit
  the needs of your particular environment.</p>

  <!-- TODO: changes are written to the first database in the list, but
       multiple databases can be writable. -->
  <p>A <em>profile</em> is a list of configuration databases. The first
  database in a profile is the write-to database and the remaining databases
  are read-only. Each of the system databases is generated from a key file
  directory. Each key file directory contains one or more key files. Each key
  file contains at least one dconf patch and one or more keys and the
  corresponding values.</p>

  <p>Key pairs which are set in a <sys>dconf</sys> <em>profile</em> will
  override the default settings unless there is a problem with the value that
  you have set.</p>

  <!-- TODO: databases -->
  <p></p>

<section id="profile">
  <!-- TODO: explain the profile syntax (maybe new page) -->
  <title>Profiles</title>
  <p>You will usually want your <sys>dconf</sys> profile to consist of a
  <em>user database</em> and at least one system database. The profile must
  list one database per line.</p>
  <p>The first line in a profile is the database that changes are written to. It
  is usually <code>user-db:<input>user</input></code>. <input>user</input> is
  the name of the user database which can normally be found in
  <file>~/.config/dconf</file>.</p>
  <example>
    <listing>
      <title>Sample profile</title>
      <code its:translate="no">user-db:user
system-db:<input>local</input>
system-db:<input>site</input></code>
    </listing>
  </example>
  <!--TODO: explain local and site -->
</section>

<!--section id="key-file">
  < TODO: link to dconf-keyfiles.page? >
  <p></p>

</section-->

</page>
