September 2002
Beginner to intermediate
216 pages
7h 43m
English
Content preview from Mac OS X for Unix GeeksBecome an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
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defaults
When you customize your Mac using the System Preferences, all of those changes and settings are stored in what’s known as the defaults system. Everything that you’ve done to make your Mac your own is stored as XML data in the form of a property list (or plist). This property list is, in turn, stored in ~/Library/Preferences.
Every time you change one of those settings, that particular property list is updated. For the initiated, there are two other ways to alter the property lists. The first is by using the PropertyListEditor application (/Developer/Applications) and the other is by using the defaults command in the Terminal. Whether you use System Preferences, PropertyListEditor, or the defaults command, any changes you make affect the current user.
Syntax
defaults [-currentHost | -hostname]command
Options
- -currentHost
Performs operations on the local machine.
-
-host
name Performs operations on the specified host.
Commands
- read
Prints out all of your current settings.
-
read
domain Prints out your settings for the specified domain, such as com.apple.dock.
-
read
domain key Prints out the value of the specified key. For example, to see the current Dock orientation, use:
defaults read com.apple.dock orientation.
-
read-type
domain key Prints out the data type of the specified key. For example, defaults read-type com.apple.dock orientation tells you that the type of the orientation key is string.
-
write
domain key value Writes a value to the specified key.
-
rename
domain old_key ...
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O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.Julian F.
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.Amir M.
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.