9.4. What Are dconf Profiles?
A profile is a list of system's hardware and software configuration databases, which the
dconf system collects. dconf profiles allow you to compare identical systems to troubleshoot hardware or software problems.
The
dconf system stores its profiles in text files. The $DCONF_PROFILE environment variable can specify a relative path to the file from the /etc/dconf/profile/ directory, or an absolute path, such as in a user's home directory.
Key pairs which are set in a
dconf profile will override the default settings unless there is a problem with the value that you have set.
9.4.1. Selecting a dconf Profile
On startup,
dconf consults the $DCONF_PROFILE environment variable whether the variable is set. If set, dconf attempts to open the named profile and aborts if this step fails.
As long as the environment variable is not set,
dconf attempts to open the profile named user. Provided this step still fails, dconf falls back to an internal hard-wired configuration.
Each line in a profile specifies one
dconf database. The first line indicates the database used to write changes whereas the remaining lines show read-only databases. The following is a sample profile stored in /etc/dconf/profile/user:
user-db:user system-db:local system-db:site
This sample profile specifies three databases: user is the name of the user database which can normally be found in
~/.config/dconf, and local and site are system databases, located in /etc/dconf/db/.
Important
The
dconf profile for a session is determined at login, so users will have to log out and log in to apply a new dconf user profile to their session.
