GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 518590
Gconf file structure must respect fd.o specifications
Last modified: 2012-02-13 03:38:27 UTC
with ~/.gconf and ~/.gconfd, the structure of the .gconf files is very unclear and doesn't allow easy backup/recover/portability accross different versions. I suggest to investigate more closely a clear preferences/user data separation and a clear files structures. See the related FD.O specification: http://standards.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/latest/ar01s03.html The reason why I'm reporting this bug : http://ploum.frimouvy.org/?184-cleaning-user-preferences-keeping-user-data
I've posted a reflexion about this on gnome-love : http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-love/2008-September/msg00000.html Gconf ******* Gconf seems to me the biggest problem. I've heard many thing about gconf so I'm unsure what is the best way. There are two alternatives : 1) Gconf is only there to store preferences. It means that all gconf will simply go to $XDG_CONFIG_HOME. All applications that have datas in Gconf (like evolution does) should be treated as bugs. Remember : XDG_CONFIG_HOME is deletable ! 2) We agree that Gconf should be able to also store personnal datas. If it's the case, well, it would require a lot more thinking. But the first interesting to do should be to list applications that put data (and not config) in gconf, meaning "which applications will break if you delete the gconf directory" ? When asking around me, people seem to think that 1) is the good choice because "Gconf was intented for configuration". To me, it makes sense.
*** Bug 528096 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 573655 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Since gconf is deprecated I suggest this bug can be closed. Also the replacement dconf already adheres to the fdo specs.