For Python, use Gio module. Specifically, here's an example of two functions I use in my own code (feel free to see how they're used within my Launcher List Indicator):
from gi.repository import Gio
Define your own class here
# Note that these use `self` for use with classes
# this could be removed otherwise
def gsettings_get(self, schema, path, key):
"""Get value of gsettings schema"""
if path is None:
gsettings = Gio.Settings.new(schema)
else:
gsettings = Gio.Settings.new_with_path(schema, path)
return gsettings.get_value(key)
def gsettings_set(self, schema, path, key, value):
"""Set value of gsettings schema"""
if path is None:
gsettings = Gio.Settings.new(schema)
else:
gsettings = Gio.Settings.new_with_path(schema, path)
if isinstance(value, list):
return gsettings.set_strv(key, value)
if isinstance(value, int):
return gsettings.set_int(key, value)
These functions make getting and setting values easy and similar to the command-line utilities; schema, path, and key values are all strings. For instance, to set Unity launcher position to "Bottom" you would do:
self.gsettings_set('com.canonical.Unity.Launcher', 'launcher-position', 'Bottom')
For shell scripts, there are dconf and gsettings command-line tools, the later being a front-end to dconf. The gsettings command is preferred because it performs safety checks on the input values. Example of usage:
gsettings set com.canonical.Unity.Launcher launcher-position 'Bottom'
You can call these two from python using subprocess.call() or subprocess.check_output(), but this has the overhead of spawning extra process, which is unnecessary (And if you're going to do it Pythonic way, do it right via the API).
See also
