mars

xfconf

Xfce configuration subsystem.

ls /usr/bin | grep xf | paste - - | while read a b; do printf "%-30s %-30s\n" $a $b; done

startxfce4                     xfce4-about
xfce4-accessibility-settings   xfce4-appearance-settings
xfce4-appfinder                xfce4-display-settings
xfce4-find-cursor              xfce4-keyboard-settings
xfce4-mime-helper              xfce4-mime-settings
xfce4-mouse-settings           xfce4-panel
xfce4-popup-applicationsmenu   xfce4-popup-directorymenu
xfce4-popup-windowmenu         xfce4-power-manager
xfce4-power-manager-settings   xfce4-screensaver
xfce4-screensaver-command      xfce4-screensaver-preferences
xfce4-session                  xfce4-session-logout
xfce4-session-settings         xfce4-settings-editor
xfce4-settings-manager         xfce4-terminal
xfce4-wayland                  xfconf-query
xfdesktop                      xfdesktop-settings
xflock4                        xfrun4
xfsettingsd                    xfwm4
xfwm4-settings                 xfwm4-tweaks-settings

Individual Xfce components have their own settings app (e.g. xfdesktop-settings, xfce4-session-settings), xfwm4 has multiple, and there are freestanding settings too that affect multiple components (xfce4-keyboard-settings).

There are 4 programs that deal with settings themselves:

• xfce4-settings-manager - The “Settings” meta app, that shows the settings “dialogs” for all Xfce components present on the system.
• xfce4-settings-editor - A rawer program to directly edit the key values.
• xfsettingsd - A background daemon that applies settings updates.

These three form the xfce4-settings component (https://docs.xfce.org/xfce/xfce4-settings/start):

The xfce4-settings component provides a daemon, manager, and editor to centralize the configuration management of the Xfce system.

That leaves the last thing on the list, and the topic of our perusal here - xfconf-query

xfconf

So we end up with a H1 and H2 with the same value.

Xfconf is a “simple client-server configuration storage and query system” (https://www.xfce.org/projects).

https://docs.xfce.org/xfce/xfconf/start has more to say:

Xfconf is a hierarchical (tree-like) configuration system where the immediate child nodes of the root are called “channels”. All settings beneath the channel nodes are called “properties”.

Property names are referenced by their “full path” underneath the channel. Everything is case-insensitive. Example:

• Channel: ExampleApp, Property: /main/history-window/last-accessed

Settings stored in Xfconf can be accessed via

• Configuration dialogs within Settings manager.
• Settings editor
• Using xfconf-query
• Manually. Xfconf stores all its data in XML files which can be edited when Xfconf is not running.

xfconf-query

xfconf-query --list

Channels:
  displays
  keyboard-layout
  keyboards
  thunar
  xfce4-appfinder
  xfce4-desktop
  xfce4-keyboard-shortcuts
  xfce4-panel
  xfce4-session
  xfce4-settings-editor
  xfce4-settings-manager
  xfwm4
  xsettings

xfconf-query -c keyboard-layout --list

/Default/XkbDisable
/Default/XkbLayout
/Default/XkbVariant

xfconf-query -c keyboard-layout --property /Default/XkbVariant

dvorak

~/.config/xfce4

The XML files the docs speak of are in ~/.config

cd ~/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml && find . -type f

./keyboard-layout.xml
./xfce4-panel.xml
./xfce4-settings-manager.xml
./xfce4-keyboard-shortcuts.xml
./xsettings.xml
./displays.xml
./keyboards.xml
./xfce4-settings-editor.xml
./thunar.xml
./xfce4-session.xml
./xfce4-appfinder.xml
./xfwm4.xml
./xfce4-terminal.xml
./xfce4-desktop.xml

git ~/.config

Conceptually, the entire ~/.config can be version controlled. Practically, as of today, early 2025, this is an exercise in futility, because these settings are a mixture of both the relatively persistent (my “prefs”) and the obviously transient (some of these apps store window sizes and positions there).

So putting the entirety of ~/.config under git and subsuming it in dotfiles is not happening. However, while a bit more cumbersome, it is still possible to declaratively restore preferences by keeping the xfconf-query --set invocations in dotfiles.

That said, since it is trivial to version control ~/.config, might as well do it, just to observe what changes when.

cd ~/.config && git init && git add . && git commit -m 'Initial commit'

Dotfileable

Until the settings panel for a particular channel is opened, the channel might not exist, nor the property. So we need to pass the “–create”. Which also necessitates passing the “–type”.

So to restore the system state in dotfiles requires invocations of the form:

xfconf-query --channel xfce4-terminal --property /shortcuts-no-mnemonics --create --type bool --set true

Which can be shortened to the following template

xfconf-query -c xfce4-terminal -p /shortcuts-no-mnemonics -t bool -ns true

From the examples in the docs.xfce.org/xfce/xfconf/xfconf-query, the types seem to be bool, string, int.

dbus-launch

If launched from a separate TTY, xfconf-query fails to run, complaining about not being able to find the X display. This works then:

dbus-launch xfconf-query -l

This site is open source. Improve this page.