Bug#287028: gconf2: please allow a configurable way to /not/ use timestamps in the %gconf files

[Wouter Verhelst]

Package: gconf2
Version: 2.8.1-4
Severity: wishlist

Hi,

I've taken the step of managing my $HOME in version control. This works
almost perfectly, the only issue being gconf.

GConf-using applications seem to have a habit of updating values in the
preferences database that have not really been updated. When this
happens, the "mtime" attribute of the "entry" tag is updated to reflect
the last time the value has been touched.

I'm not sure why this is; but in any case, it makes using
version-controlled home directories unnecessarily hard, because even a
logon modifies some GConf keys, so committing after logging on on two
different machines will always provoke conflicts.

It's not that I cannot live with occasional conflicts; but it'd be nice
if I could somehow disable the mtime attribute, if it does not have any
function. That would make it a lot easier for me.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 3.1
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (500, 'testing')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Kernel: Linux 2.6.9
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C (charmap=ANSI_X3.4-1968)

Versions of packages gconf2 depends on:
ii  libatk1.0-0                 1.8.0-4      The ATK accessibility toolkit
ii  libc6                       2.3.2.ds1-19 GNU C Library: Shared libraries an
ii  libgconf2-4                 2.8.1-4      GNOME configuration database syste
ii  libglib2.0-0                2.4.8-1      The GLib library of C routines
ii  libgtk2.0-0                 2.4.14-2     The GTK+ graphical user interface 
ii  liborbit2                   1:2.10.2-1.1 libraries for ORBit2 - a CORBA ORB
ii  libpango1.0-0               1.6.0-3      Layout and rendering of internatio
ii  libpopt0                    1.7-5        lib for parsing cmdline parameters
ii  libxml2                     2.6.11-5     GNOME XML library
ii  zlib1g                      1:1.2.2-4    compression library - runtime

-- no debconf information