<s>
Its	O
main	O
purpose	O
is	O
to	O
provide	O
a	O
back	B-Architecture
end	I-Architecture
to	O
GSettings	O
on	O
platforms	O
that	O
do	O
n't	O
already	O
have	O
configuration	O
storage	O
systems	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
It	O
depends	O
on	O
GLib	B-Language
.	O
</s>
<s>
It	O
is	O
part	O
of	O
GNOME	B-Application
3	O
and	O
is	O
a	O
replacement	O
for	O
GConf	B-Language
.	O
</s>
<s>
PolicyKit	B-Language
integration	O
is	O
planned	O
so	O
that	O
a	O
normal	O
user	O
may	O
temporarily	O
gain	O
the	O
ability	O
to	O
,	O
for	O
example	O
,	O
write	O
to	O
the	O
keys	O
under	O
(	O
or	O
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
This	O
means	O
that	O
programs	O
like	O
the	O
GNOME	B-Language
Display	I-Language
Manager	I-Language
configuration	O
utility	O
no	O
longer	O
have	O
to	O
be	O
run	O
as	O
root	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Since	O
a	O
typical	O
GNOME	B-Application
login	O
consists	O
of	O
thousands	O
of	O
reads	O
and	O
ideally	O
0	O
writes	O
,	O
dconf	O
is	O
optimized	O
for	O
reads	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
This	O
is	O
achieved	O
with	O
a	O
simple	O
file	O
format	O
that	O
doubles	O
both	O
as	O
the	O
storage	O
format	O
for	O
data	O
in	O
dconf	O
and	O
as	O
an	O
IPC	B-Operating_System
mechanism	O
between	O
the	O
clients	O
and	O
the	O
server	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Avoiding	O
round	O
trips	O
and	O
context	O
switches	O
is	O
desirable	O
in	O
itself	O
,	O
but	O
the	O
real	O
advantage	O
comes	O
from	O
allowing	O
the	O
I/O	O
scheduler	O
in	O
the	O
kernel	B-Operating_System
to	O
do	O
a	O
better	O
job	O
by	O
saturating	O
it	O
with	O
requests	O
coming	O
from	O
all	O
of	O
the	O
applications	O
trying	O
to	O
read	O
their	O
keys	O
(	O
as	O
opposed	O
to	O
a	O
common	O
configuration	O
server	O
serially	O
requesting	O
a	O
single	O
key	O
at	O
a	O
time	O
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Writes	O
are	O
less	O
optimized	O
they	O
traverse	O
the	O
bus	O
and	O
are	O
handled	O
by	O
a	O
"	O
writer	O
"	O
a	O
D-Bus	B-Language
service	O
in	O
the	O
ordinary	O
way	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
list	O
of	O
change	O
notifications	O
that	O
an	O
individual	O
client	O
is	O
interested	O
in	O
is	O
maintained	O
by	O
the	O
bus	O
daemon	O
(	O
as	O
a	O
D-Bus	B-Language
signal	O
watch/match	O
list	O
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
GNOME	B-Application
database	O
file	O
for	O
each	O
user	O
is	O
by	O
default	O
~	O
/.config/dconf/user	O
,	O
a	O
file	O
expected	O
to	O
be	O
in	O
GVDB	O
format	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
GVariant	O
is	O
a	O
strongly	O
typed	O
variant	B-Language
datatype	I-Language
used	O
for	O
all	O
the	O
values	O
stored	O
in	O
dconf	O
;	O
it	O
can	O
contain	O
one	O
or	O
more	O
values	O
along	O
with	O
information	O
about	O
the	O
type	O
of	O
the	O
values	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
GVariant	O
is	O
useful	O
whenever	O
data	O
needs	O
to	O
be	O
serialized	O
,	O
for	O
example	O
when	O
sending	O
method	O
parameters	O
in	O
DBus	B-Language
,	O
or	O
when	O
saving	O
settings	O
using	O
GSettings	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
GVariant	O
is	O
part	O
of	O
GLib	B-Language
.	O
</s>
<s>
GSettings	O
is	O
part	O
of	O
GIO	B-Language
.	O
</s>
<s>
which	O
is	O
part	O
of	O
GLib	B-Language
.	O
</s>
<s>
Since	O
version	O
0.2	O
,	O
dconf	O
is	O
licensed	O
under	O
the	O
LGPL	B-Application
version	O
2.1	O
"	O
or	O
later	O
"	O
.	O
</s>
