How to dump ALL dconf/gsettings so that I can compare them between two different machines?

gnome keyboard wine dconf

15,222

Solution 1

Use the dump command of dconf (https://developer.gnome.org/dconf/unstable/dconf-tool.html):

dconf dump /

As always you can use output redirection to save the output to a file for later use:

dconf dump / > dconf-backup.txt

Solution 2

gsettings list-recursively needs a full schema name, it doens't work with partial schema names. So You can't use org.freedesktop.

But you can do this with dconf:

 dconf dump /org/freedesktop/

Note the different notation here: dconf doesn't use schemas but directories.

15,222

Rmano

Italian, living in Madrid, Spain; teacher of electronics at higher education since 1994, user of Unix since 1989 and of Linux as soon as it existed (kernel 0.99pl8, or something like that, SLS distribution on 40 floppies...), user of TeX/LaTeX since even before (on a VAX/VMS!) and hobbyist photographer with a geeky side.

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

Rmano over 1 year
The problem:

I have two machines, both with Ubuntu Gnome 14.04 up-to-date, and both with installed the latest CrossOver Linux(1) to run MS Office 2007 on it. I know, it's a proprietary program, but the problem is more general and affect Wine too. Please do not stop reading.

Both machines have a spanish keyboard working well most of the time (showing sometime a known bug but I think it's unrelated). The problem is that on one of them there is a set of program running under Crossover Wine affected by a bug that makes the dead keys not working on some program, notably MS Office Word (there is also another bug for another issue but it seems it is the same problem).

Disabling IBus in Language Support -> Change Keyboard input method and unsetting XMODIFIERS works on one machine but not on the other (!).

So it must be some strange setting doing the difference...

The question

Is it possible to dump all the gsetting/dconf/whatever configuration database(2) in a readable file so that I can check differences with diff -u?

I know that
```
gsettings list-recursively org.freedesktop.ibus.general
```
works, but I am quite puzzled that
```
gsettings list-recursively org.freedesktop
```
gives the error
```
No such schema 'org.freedesktop'
```
...so it seems that I can't dump all of the registry in one go. Any hint?

Footnotes:

(1) This is a version of Wine with added technical support and fixes to run some program better. A lot of the improvement percolates on free Wine, so I think is a good part of the Ubuntu ecosystem; nevertheless I do not add the link to avoid being accused of publicity ;-)

(2) Can we call it what it really is --- a registry like the infamous windows one?
geekQ about 4 years

As of Ubuntu MATE 20.04 gsettings list-recursively SCHEMA is optional, when not given - all the settings are dumped.
MestreLion about 3 years

@geekQ It is optional in Ubuntu 18.04 too, at least for the main (Gnome) flavor.