The "raw" function for obtaining the value stored at a given key in the configuration database is gconf_engine_get (). gconf_engine_get () returns a GConfValue if the key was set, or NULL if the key was unset or an error occurred. If an error occurred a GError is returned in the location given as the final argument.

There are also convenience functions that automatically convert GConfValue to primitive C types. These include gconf_engine_get_int(), gconf_engine_get_bool(), and so on.