Mac OS X in a Nutshell

Name

scutil

Synopsis

scutil [-r node_or_address | -w key [-t timeout]]

Provides control of the System Configuration framework’s dynamic store. scutil opens an interactive session with configd, in which various commands are available to view and modify System Configuration keys.

As a quick sample run-through, invoke scutil. You will be placed at the scutil prompt. Enter open to start the session with configd, then enter list. You will see a set of keys, some of which are provided by the System Configuration framework (such as the keys in the File: domain), some of which are obtained from the preferences file /var/db/SystemConfiguration.xml (the Setup: keys), and some of which are published by the configuration agents (the State: keys). Enter get State:/Network/Global/DNS to load the dictionary associated with that key. Then run d.show to display it. You should see a list of DNS servers and search domains configured on your system. Finally, run close, then quit.

Options

-r

Checks for reachability of the node or address. (Any numerical argument seems to result in Reachable status.)

-t

Specifies the timeout to wait for the presence of a data store key, in seconds. The default is 15.

-w

Exits when the specified key exists in the data store or when the timeout has expired.

Commands

scutil enters interactive mode when it is invoked with no arguments.

add key [temporary]

Adds a key to the data store with the value of the current dictionary. The temporary keyword causes it to be flushed ...