glib-compile-schemas

glib-compile-schemas [--targetdir DIR] [--schema-directory DIR] [--dry-run] [--strict] [--help] [--version] DIRECTORY

--targetdir DIR
    Specifies the directory where the compiled schemas file (gschemas.compiled) will be written.

--schema-directory DIR
    Adds DIR to the list of directories to search for schema files. This option can be specified multiple times.

--dry-run
    Performs a trial run without actually writing the compiled schemas file.

--strict
    Treats warnings as errors.

--help
    Displays help information.

--version
    Displays the version of glib-compile-schemas.

DIRECTORY
    The directory containing the schema XML files to compile. This is a mandatory argument.

The glib-compile-schemas command compiles GSettings schema XML files into a binary format for faster access by applications. GSettings is a key-value configuration system used by many GNOME applications. The schema files define the structure and possible values of settings. By compiling these schemas, glib-compile-schemas improves application startup time and overall performance when reading settings. The command searches for XML schema files in specified directories and creates a binary file containing the compiled schemas, typically named 'gschemas.compiled'. This binary file is then used by GSettings to quickly retrieve schema information without having to parse the XML files each time. Typically it will be placed to the share folder under 'glib-2.0/schemas'.

The user running this command must have write permissions to the target directory.
If gschemas.compiled is already in the target directory, it will be overwritten.

The command returns 0 on success and a non-zero value on failure.

To compile schemas in the current directory and place the compiled file in /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas:
glib-compile-schemas /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas

Schema files are XML files describing the structure and valid values for GSettings keys. They must adhere to a specific format defined by the GSettings schema specification.

glib-compile-schemas was developed as part of the GLib library to improve the performance of GSettings by pre-compiling schema definitions. It became increasingly important as GNOME and other applications adopted GSettings for configuration, as the performance overhead of parsing XML schema files became noticeable, especially on application startup.

The command automates a manual process of schema creation and ensures a streamlined workflow for developers and system administrators. Earlier it may have been necessary to use different tools to check XML validity and then manually convert them into a suitable binary format.

gsettings(1)