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Defaults CLI Not Working on Files

Keary Suska
 

We used to be able to use the defaults command to read/write plist files, but that doesn’t seem to be working anymore on my OS 12.6.1 machine. There is a note of deprecation plans for this feature, and that there will be a replacement, but the online docs don’t say anything about this. Anybody know?

TIA,

Keary Suska
Esoteritech, Inc.
"Demystifying technology for your home or business”
Marco S Hyman
 

On Nov 15, 2022, at 5:03 PM, Keary Suska <cocoa-dev@...> wrote:

We used to be able to use the defaults command to read/write plist files, but that doesn’t seem to be working anymore on my OS 12.6.1 machine.
defaults read/write work on my machine (13.0.1) but not necessarily immediately updating a plist file. Current defaults are cached, controlled by cfprefsd (I think). If you want to go directly to a plist file I might use PlistBuddy.
Mark Allan
 



On 16 Nov 2022, at 1:19 am, Marco S Hyman <marc@...> wrote:

On Nov 15, 2022, at 5:03 PM, Keary Suska <cocoa-dev@...> wrote:

We used to be able to use the defaults command to read/write plist files, but that doesn’t seem to be working anymore on my OS 12.6.1 machine.

defaults read/write work on my machine (13.0.1) but not necessarily immediately updating a plist file.  Current defaults are cached, controlled by cfprefsd (I think).  If you want to go directly to a plist file I might use PlistBuddy.

Yeah, you have to kill cfprefsd for any changes to take effect, but I agree with Keary, PlistBuddy is the tool you're looking for. It takes a bit of learning (and has some niggly bugs) but it's much more powerful than the defaults command. You'll find it at /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy 

Mark
Mark Allan
 

On 16 Nov 2022, at 10:52 am, Mark Allan via groups.io <markjallan@...> wrote:

On 16 Nov 2022, at 1:19 am, Marco S Hyman <marc@...> wrote:

On Nov 15, 2022, at 5:03 PM, Keary Suska <cocoa-dev@...> wrote:

We used to be able to use the defaults command to read/write plist files, but that doesn’t seem to be working anymore on my OS 12.6.1 machine.
defaults read/write work on my machine (13.0.1) but not necessarily immediately updating a plist file. Current defaults are cached, controlled by cfprefsd (I think). If you want to go directly to a plist file I might use PlistBuddy.
Yeah, you have to kill cfprefsd for any changes to take effect, but I agree with Keary, PlistBuddy is the tool you're looking for. It takes a bit of learning (and has some niggly bugs) but it's much more powerful than the defaults command. You'll find it at /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy
Mark
Apologies for the HTML email, and for getting the name wrong. I meant "I agree with Marco"...
Simon Manning
 

There is also plutil which is more recent, I think a replacement for PlistBuddy though I don't remember where I'm getting that idea from, and in the default PATH.

When defaults gained the caching behaviour, or perhaps started caching more aggressively, plutil is what I moved over to using for build scripts that manipulate Info.plist during an Xcode build.

Simon
Keary Suska
 

My issue is that I am trying to update an old installation script (not one I wrote) without having to rewrite it. It uses defaults to read values from an Info.plist file, but those command fail with the error "The domain/default pair of ... does not exist” even though the key does in fact exist. It looks like it is interpreting the file name path as a domain, and of course that wouldn’t exist (which makes the error even less useful).

So, if I could do a global search and replace to change those commands, that would be much easier, hence my question. So to switch that around, does anyone know of a command line utility that allows one to read values by key from a plist file?

Keary Suska
Esoteritech, Inc.
"Demystifying technology for your home or business”

On Nov 16, 2022, at 5:12 AM, Simon Manning <simon.manning@...> wrote:

There is also plutil which is more recent, I think a replacement for PlistBuddy though I don't remember where I'm getting that idea from, and in the default PATH.

When defaults gained the caching behaviour, or perhaps started caching more aggressively, plutil is what I moved over to using for build scripts that manipulate Info.plist during an Xcode build.

Simon
Marco S Hyman
 

On Nov 16, 2022, at 9:27 AM, Keary Suska <cocoa-dev@...> wrote:

does anyone know of a command line utility that allows one to read values by key from a plist file?
% /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Print LSApplicationCategoryType” Info.plist
public.app-category.photography

I didn’t know about plutil until I read Simon’s response. I’ll be giving it a look.

Marc
James Walker
 

On Nov 16, 2022, at 9:27 AM, Keary Suska <cocoa-dev@...> wrote:

My issue is that I am trying to update an old installation script (not one I wrote) without having to rewrite it. It uses defaults to read values from an Info.plist file, but those command fail with the error "The domain/default pair of ... does not exist” even though the key does in fact exist. It looks like it is interpreting the file name path as a domain, and of course that wouldn’t exist (which makes the error even less useful).
If you are using a path as a domain, did you quote it if it contains any spaces? I just tried defaults read <path> <key> in a case where the path is a full path that does not contain spaces, and it worked.
Alex Zavatone
 

Spaces or other characters such as ‘, “ or cyrillic.

On Nov 16, 2022, at 5:10 PM, James Walker <list2@...> wrote:



On Nov 16, 2022, at 9:27 AM, Keary Suska <cocoa-dev@...> wrote:

My issue is that I am trying to update an old installation script (not one I wrote) without having to rewrite it. It uses defaults to read values from an Info.plist file, but those command fail with the error "The domain/default pair of ... does not exist” even though the key does in fact exist. It looks like it is interpreting the file name path as a domain, and of course that wouldn’t exist (which makes the error even less useful).
If you are using a path as a domain, did you quote it if it contains any spaces? I just tried defaults read <path> <key> in a case where the path is a full path that does not contain spaces, and it worked.
Keary Suska
 

No spaces or special characters—defaults echoes back the path and key so I know it is recognizing them. I quoted them both anyway, with the same results.

The PlistBuddy suggestion, however, works. Thanks Alex! I looked at the help output for PlistBuddy as other had recommended it but I didn’t grok this option. Just a “duh” moment.

Thanks all,

Keary Suska
Esoteritech, Inc.
"Demystifying technology for your home or business”

On Nov 16, 2022, at 1:22 PM, Alex Zavatone via groups.io <zav@...> wrote:

Spaces or other characters such as ‘, “ or cyrillic.

On Nov 16, 2022, at 5:10 PM, James Walker <list2@...> wrote:



On Nov 16, 2022, at 9:27 AM, Keary Suska <cocoa-dev@...> wrote:

My issue is that I am trying to update an old installation script (not one I wrote) without having to rewrite it. It uses defaults to read values from an Info.plist file, but those command fail with the error "The domain/default pair of ... does not exist” even though the key does in fact exist. It looks like it is interpreting the file name path as a domain, and of course that wouldn’t exist (which makes the error even less useful).
If you are using a path as a domain, did you quote it if it contains any spaces? I just tried defaults read <path> <key> in a case where the path is a full path that does not contain spaces, and it worked.
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