GNOME Directories and Files

Red Hat installs GNOME binaries in the /usr/bin directory on your system. GNOME libraries are located in the /usr/lib directory. GNOME also has its own include directories with header files for use in compiling and developing GNOME applications, /usr/include/libgnome and /usr/include/libgnomeui (see Table 6-4). The directories located in /usr/share/gnome contain files used to configure your GNOME environment.

Table 6-4: GNOME Configuration Directories
System GNOME Directories	Contents
/usr/bin	GNOME programs.
/usr/lib GNOME libraries.
/usr/include/libgnome	Header files for use in compiling and developing GNOME applications.
/usr/include/libgnomeui	Header files for use in compiling and developing GNOME user interface components.
/usr/share/gnome/apps	Files used by GNOME applications.
/usr/share/gnome/help	Files used by the GNOME Help system.
/usr/share/doc/gnome*	Documentation for various GNOME packages, including libraries.
/etc/X11/gdm/gnomerc	GNOME configuration file invoked with the GNOME Display Manager (GDM).
/etc/gconf	GConf configuration files.
.gnome, .gnome2	Hold configuration files for the user's GNOME desktop and GNOME applications. Includes configuration files for the panel, background, MIME types, and sessions.
.gnome-desktop	Directory where files, directories, and links you place on the desktop will reside.
.gnome2_private	The user's private GNOME directory.
.gtkrc	GTK+ configuration file.
.gconf	GConf configuration database.
.gconfd	GConf gconfd daemon management files.
.nautilus	Configuration files for the Nautilus file manager.

GNOME User Directories

GNOME sets up several hidden directories for each user in their home directory that begin with .gnome and include a preceding period in the name: .gnome and .gnome2 hold files used to configure a user's GNOME desktop and applications. Configuration files for the panel, MIME types, and sessions, among others, are located here. Configuration files for particular GNOME applications are kept in the subdirectory apps. The .gnome-desktop directory holds any files, folders, or links the user has dragged to the desktop. .gtckrc is the user configuration file for the GTK+ libraries, which contains current desktop configuration directives for resources such as key bindings, colors, and window styles.

GConf

With GNOME 2.0, GNOME officially implements GConf to provide underlying configuration support. GConf corresponds to the Registry used on Windows system. It consists of a series of libraries used to implement a configuration database for a GNOME desktop. This standardized configuration database allows for consistent interactions between GNOME applications. GNOME applications that are built from a variety of other programs, as Nautilus is, can use GConf to configure all those programs according to a single standard, maintaining configurations in a single database. Currently the GConf database is implemented as XML files in the user's .gconf directory. Database interaction and access is carried out by the GConf daemon, gconfd.