<page xmlns="http://projectmallard.org/1.0/"
      type="topic" style="task"
      id="dconf-profiles">

<info>
  <link type="seealso" xref="dconf-custom-defaults" />
  <revision version="0.1" date="2013-03-25" status="draft"/>
  <credit type="author">
    <name>Jana Švárová</name>
    <email>jana.svarova@gmail.com</email>
  </credit>

  <desc>This page defines the dconf tool, the dconf profile, gives detailed 
  information about profile selection.</desc>

</info>
<title>dconf profiles</title>

<section id="dconf">
  <title>dconf</title>

  <p>The <sys>dconf</sys> tool collects a system's hardware and software 
  configuration. It allows to take your system configuration with you on the 
  road, compare identical systems to troubleshoot HW or SW problems.</p>

  <p><sys>dconf</sys> is based on the concept of a 'profile'. A profile is a 
  list of configuration databases.</p>
</section>


<section id="select-a-profile">
  <title>Select a profile</title>
  <p><sys>dconf</sys> stores its profiles in text files. $DCONF_PROFILE can 
  specify a relative path to the file from the <file>/etc/dconf/profile/</file>
  directory, or an absolute path (such as in a user's home directory).</p> 

  <p>On startup, <sys>dconf</sys> consults the DCONF_PROFILE environment 
  variable. If set, <sys>dconf</sys> attempts to open the named profile and 
  aborts if that fails. If the environment variable is not set, 
  <sys>dconf</sys> attempts to open the profile named "user". If that
  fails, it will fall back to an internal hard-wired configuration.</p>

  <p>Each line in a profile specifies one <sys>dconf</sys> database. The first 
  line indicates the database used to write changes, and the remaining lines 
  indicate read-only databases. Here is an example:</p>
<code>
user-db:user
system-db:local
system-db:site
</code>

<note style="important">
  <p>The first time you create a <sys>dconf</sys> user profile, you'll need to
  log out and log in to apply the new profile.</p>
</note>
</section>
	
</page>
