GConf is a configuration data storage mechanism scheduled to ship with GNOME 2.0. GConf does work without GNOME however; it can be used with plain GTK+, Xlib, KDE, or even text mode applications as well.

Here are some of the features of GConf:

• This is a valuable feature for IS deparatments managing large numbers of computers by changing the users configurations remotely.
• Data change notification service. If configuration data is changed, all interested applications are notified. The notification service works across the network, affecting all login sessions for a single user. Notification is also useful if multiple application instances are running. GNOME 2.0 uses this feature to let user interface configuration take effect on-the-fly without restarting any applications; if you turn off toolbar icons, for example, toolbar icons will immediately disappear in all running apps.
• GConf does proper locking so that the configuration data doesn’t get corrupted when multiple applications try to use it.

If you are not able to understand the above points. Simply I can say the setting i.e., System > Preferences >>>(Menu options) can be edited by command prompt. The command for editing gnome is gcoftool-2

gconftool-2 --set /desktop/gnome/interface/monospace_font_name --type string "Monospace 8" or gconftool-2 -s -t string   /desktop/gnome/interface/monospace_font_name “Monospace 8″

I will explain the above command clearly.

gconftool-2 –set or -s  => setting a variable

gconftool-2 –type or -t => type of the variable  (Here the variable type is string. If it is integer then variable type is int)

/desktop/gnome/interface/monospace_font_name =>Variable you are setting in gnome environment.

Here are some of the different commands

gconftool-2 --set /desktop/gnome/interface/document_font_name --type string "Sans 8"
gconftool-2 --set /desktop/gnome/interface/font_name --type string "Sans 8"
gconftool-2 --set /apps/metacity/general/titlebar_font --type string "Sans Bold 8"

Now here is my question… How do you determine the variable name or key name of gnome dialog variable. Let’s see

For example, I want to configure the gnome environment variable of remote desktop. I want to enable the checkbox Allow other users to view your desktop in the below mentioned screenshot.

The checkbox is boolean type.  so here type will be bool and the operation is set.  Now this is the command

gconftool-2 -s -t bool /desktop/gnome/remote_access/enabled  true

How do I get the variable name /desktop/gnome/remote_access ? The answer is simple, Its from gconf-editor.

Type gconf-editor in the terminal and get the values of the remote desktop as shown in the below screenshot

If you observe the tree structure in the above screenshot, Remote Desktop application is present in tree structure /desktop/gnome/remote_access. The Variable type and value can be seen in the right side of the panel.

Note: “/” should be mandatory when youe typing the path before desktop.

If you want more about this just type man gconftool in the terminal

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