<s>
GConf	B-Language
was	O
a	O
system	O
used	O
by	O
the	O
GNOME	B-Application
desktop	I-Application
environment	I-Application
for	O
storing	O
configuration	B-General_Concept
settings	O
for	O
the	O
desktop	O
and	O
applications	B-Language
.	O
</s>
<s>
It	O
is	O
similar	O
to	O
the	O
Windows	B-Protocol
Registry	I-Protocol
.	O
</s>
<s>
It	O
was	O
deprecated	B-General_Concept
as	O
part	O
of	O
the	O
GNOME	B-Language
3	I-Language
transition	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Migration	O
to	O
its	O
replacement	O
,	O
GSettings	O
and	O
dconf	B-Language
,	O
is	O
ongoing	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Changes	O
to	O
this	O
system	O
are	O
controlled	O
by	O
GConfd	B-Language
,	O
a	O
daemon	B-Operating_System
.	O
</s>
<s>
GConfd	B-Language
watches	O
out	O
for	O
changes	O
to	O
the	O
database	O
,	O
and	O
when	O
they	O
are	O
changed	O
,	O
it	O
applies	O
the	O
new	O
settings	O
to	O
applications	B-Language
using	O
it	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
GConf	B-Language
database	O
by	O
default	O
uses	O
a	O
system	O
of	O
directories	B-Application
and	O
XML	B-Protocol
files	O
,	O
stored	O
in	O
a	O
directory	B-Application
called	O
~	O
/.gconf	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
GConf	B-Language
can	O
also	O
use	O
other	O
backends	B-Architecture
,	O
such	O
as	O
a	O
database	O
server	B-Application
,	O
but	O
XML	B-Protocol
file	O
storage	O
is	O
the	O
most	O
common	O
configuration	B-General_Concept
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
application	O
gconf-editor	B-Application
is	O
provided	O
to	O
allow	O
users	O
to	O
change	O
settings	O
manually	O
,	O
but	O
it	O
is	O
not	O
normally	O
used	O
for	O
end-user	O
preferences	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
GConf	B-Language
is	O
currently	O
based	O
on	O
the	O
C	B-Language
implementation	O
of	O
CORBA	B-Architecture
named	O
ORBit	B-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
Its	O
architecture	O
consists	O
of	O
a	O
session	O
daemon	B-Operating_System
that	O
initializes	O
various	O
sources	O
of	O
configuration	B-General_Concept
schemas	B-Application
on	O
user	O
login	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Each	O
source	O
is	O
based	O
on	O
a	O
specific	O
backend	B-Architecture
that	O
translates	O
the	O
key	O
and	O
value	O
pairs	O
that	O
compose	O
the	O
configuration	B-General_Concept
database	O
;	O
the	O
default	O
backend	B-Architecture
is	O
based	O
on	O
XML	B-Protocol
.	O
</s>
<s>
At	O
this	O
time	O
,	O
this	O
is	O
the	O
only	O
working	O
backend	B-Architecture
for	O
GConf	B-Language
,	O
although	O
an	O
LDAP	B-Protocol
backend	B-Architecture
existed	O
in	O
embryonic	O
form	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Each	O
source	O
can	O
also	O
be	O
set	O
to	O
read-only	O
,	O
in	O
order	O
to	O
create	O
a	O
default	O
basic	O
configuration	B-General_Concept
,	O
e.g.	O
</s>
<s>
in	O
a	O
corporate	O
network	B-Architecture
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
values	O
inside	O
the	O
GConf	B-Language
database	O
are	O
indexed	O
using	O
a	O
path	B-Application
string	O
in	O
the	O
form	O
of	O
/path/to/application/key	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
proper	O
way	O
to	O
access	O
the	O
GConf	B-Language
database	O
held	O
by	O
the	O
GConf	B-Language
daemon	B-Operating_System
is	O
to	O
use	O
the	O
GConfClient	O
GObject-based	O
class	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
When	O
writing	O
an	O
application	O
that	O
uses	O
GConf	B-Language
,	O
one	O
should	O
never	O
directly	O
poll	O
the	O
database	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
An	O
application	O
using	O
GConf	B-Language
should	O
provide	O
a	O
description	O
for	O
each	O
key	O
it	O
creates	O
inside	O
the	O
GConf	B-Language
database	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
This	O
configuration	B-General_Concept
meta-data	O
is	O
also	O
stored	O
inside	O
the	O
configuration	B-General_Concept
database	O
,	O
and	O
is	O
called	O
a	O
schema	B-Application
;	O
it	O
could	O
contain	O
a	O
(	O
possibly	O
localized	B-General_Concept
)	O
descriptive	O
text	O
,	O
the	O
valid	O
type	O
of	O
the	O
value	O
bound	O
to	O
a	O
key	O
,	O
and	O
a	O
default	O
value	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
C	B-Language
,	O
C++	B-Language
,	O
Perl	B-Language
,	O
Java	B-Language
,	O
C#	O
,	O
VB.NET	O
and	O
Python	B-Language
.	O
</s>
