31

I'm trying to change a string based dconf key with a bash script, using the following command line:

dconf write /org/gnome/nautilus/preferences/show-directory-item-counts 'never'

But it return the following error:

error: 0-5:unknown keyword

Usage:
  dconf write KEY VALUE 

Write a new value to a key

Arguments:
  KEY         A key path (starting, but not ending with '/')
  VALUE       The value to write (in GVariant format)

Can someone help me?

edit 1 : I'm trying to make nautilus to not count the number of item in the directory (for optimization purpose)

Dremor
  • 793

3 Answers3

46

The value needs additional quoting i.e. to assign GVariant string value 'foo' you need to write the value argument as "'foo'"

dconf write /org/gnome/nautilus/preferences/show-directory-item-counts "'never'"

See dconf — Simple tool for manipulating a dconf database at https://developer.gnome.org/

steeldriver
  • 142,475
10

What steeldriver said is the right way to do it. However using gsettings is an easier way to archive the same.

gsettings set org.gnome.nautilus.preferences show-directory-item-counts never
goetz
  • 275
0
#!/usr/bin/env bash

STATE=`gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.background show-desktop-icons`
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background show-desktop-icons true|false
guneysus
  • 103