Where does GSettings store its files?

Question

I would like to have a look at the files the dconf-editor uses to read/write settings, and I'm assuming that they are managed by gsettings. Where are these files stored on the system, and in what format?

To find out the location of the files, make some change and run `find ~/.[!.]* -mmin -5`. — Gilles 'SO- stop being evil', Mar 09 '11 at 20:53

score 17 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:36

17

Following some advice, I made a change and ran this:

find ~/.[!.]* -mmin -5

Among the displayed results was ~/.config/dconf/user. It's a binary file, a sort of database where GSettings stores stuff.

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:36

Community

1

answered Mar 18 '11 at 14:18

tshepang

64,472
86
223
290

4

If you need to read (parts of) that binary file, [this solution|https://askubuntu.com/a/368160/145568] comes in handy... – sxc731 Aug 12 '18 at 12:27
2

Needless to say, this is NOT the unix or linux way to do it. – Wastrel Sep 06 '22 at 03:00

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 01 '13 at 08:47

Here's what the manual for dconf had to say:

dconf-editor reads gsettings schemas from $XDG_DATA_DIRS/glib-2.0/schemas to obtain descriptions, default values and allowed values for keys.

So to find out where these files are all you have to do is open up a terminal and write this in:

> echo $XDG_DATA_DIRS

There is where your answer will be (provided it is set) if it isn't set try

> set | grep XDG

You should find some variation on that name with a dconf folder inside. For me the variation was. XDG_RUNTIME_DIR which was set to /run/user/1000 and held a directory called dconf with a binary file inside.

Ultimately though, if you want to find any useful human readable information you will be better off looking for the schemas themselves rather than binary files.

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 21 '11 at 11:19

1

A better method would be strace to find out. Using a binary file, why for some wrong idea about performance, how dumb for multiple reasons! KDE does it right but it's not as light as xfce with nautilus!

answered Dec 21 '11 at 11:19

Kevin Chadwick

11
1

Where does GSettings store its files?

3 Answers3