Re: GConf and bonobo-config - some ideas

[Havoc Pennington <hp redhat com>]

Dietmar Maurer <dietmar ximian com> writes: 
> I am a bit unsure about the purpose of schema's. Schema's store default
> values and documentation, and you can map each key to a schema. But is it
> really necessary that we make this mapping configurable? Isn't it possible to
> map "/a/simple/key" to schema "/schema/a/simple/key".  And do we really need
> that additional default value stored in the schema?
> 

It isn't clear to me how defaults are handled in bonobo-config, it
might be useful to explain that.

 - where do I install the defaults, if I'm writing an app
   (e.g. from a Makefile)
 - how are defaults obtained at runtime
 - how does the sysadmin reset to defaults from a config tool
 - if a sysadmin switches config backends, how to do they store the 
   defaults in the new backend

For GConf the answers are:

 - at 'make install' or 'rpm -U' time, we a) put the schema
   files in /etc/gconf/schemas and also b) install them 
   to the current system default database
 - from the schemas stored in the system default database
 - config tool asks GConf API for the default, which comes 
   from the schema
 - the admin uses gconftool to reinstall the schemas in 
   /etc/gconf/schemas

Havoc