Xfce Forum

Mike_P

Member

Registered: 2017-12-20

Posts: 6

Settings storage: Is this the way to go?

Found following on my systems (xubuntu 22.04.1 lts):

/etc/xdg/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml
/etc/xdg/xdg-xubuntu/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml
/usr/share/desktop-base/profiles/xdg-config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/
/home/username/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml

Can somebody tell me why there are all these xfce4 settings directories? Can some of them be removed?
Can etc/xdg/ hold per-user settings?

For saving the settings, xfce4-panel needs xfsettingsd, xfconfd and for saving different versions also python is required.
Seems that xfconfd is holdig the current settings in memory and writes them down at logout.
So there is no possibility to edit config files manually, modifications will be overwritten.
Change of permissions or write protection of modified setting files (xml) via "# chattr +i" (for example to prevent buggy saving) also fail to protect files.
xfce4-panel, xfsettings and xfconfd appear to be respawning each other, preventing transient disabling of independet processes.
If xfconfd remains active after logout for some reason, things get messed up.

No disrespect for the developers, they are all doing a great job, but istn't this way too complicated?
Is xfce4 generally going to make settings files non-editable manually?

CwF

Member

Registered: 2018-01-28

Posts: 288

Re: Settings storage: Is this the way to go?

They are not equivalent.

/etc/ is for global settings for all users, not per user
/etc/..xubuntu../ is a xubuntu thing
/usr/share is per installed package templates, desktop-base.deb in this case, which isn't a hard dep.
/home/  this is the per user, overrides all others, altered by xfce4 and its tools. Your only concern.