#Setting defaults for programs in osx full

array-add Add new elements to the end of an array for a key which has an array as its value. If the key was not present, it is created with the new The specified array overwrites the value of the key if the key was present at array Specify an array as the value for the given preference key:ĭefaults write somedomain preferenceKey -array element1 element2 element3 date Specify a date as the value for the given preference key. True/Yes evaluate to 1, False/No evaluate to 0. The Value must be TRUE, FALSE, YES, or NO (not case sensitive). bool A boolean as the value for the given preference key. float Specify a floating point number as the value for the given preference key.

int Specify an integer as the value for the given preference key. The data must be provided in hexadecimal. data Specify a bunch of raw data bytes as the value for the given preference key. string Specify a string as the value for the given preference key. For best results, use one of the type flags, If no type flag is provided, defaults will assume the value Specifying value types for preference keys: '-g' and '-globalDomain' can be used as synonyms for NSGlobalDomain. Plist manipulation utilities will be folded into a different Major release to only operate on preferences domains. WARNING: The defaults command will be changed in an upcoming Key-value pair will be added, overwriting the value of 'foo' if If theįile does not exist, it will be created.

Will write the key 'foo' with the value 'bar' into the plistįile 'ist' that is on the user's desktop. Normally gives the same result as the two previous examples.ĭefaults write ~/Desktop/TestFile foo bar For example:ĭefaults read ~/Library/Preferences/

#Setting defaults for programs in osx full

$ defaults read /Applications/Burn.app/Contents/Info CFBundleVersionĪ long list of preferences that can be set in macOS and macOS applications can be found over in the How-to section.ĭomain A full domain name of the form .įilepath Domains can also be specified as a path to an arbitrary plistįile, omitting the '.plist' extension. $ defaults read /Applications/Burn.app/Contents/Info CFBundleIdentifier plist file by specifying the path minus the. To re-enable the crash reporter (default) plist extensionĭisable the macOS Crash reporter (Crash dialog that normally appears after an application halts.) The defaults command can read any plist file with a path minus the. If you modify the file directly, the changes will not propagate through the cache managed by the daemon. The cfprefsd daemon manages and caches updates to preference files. Preferences are stored in a set of files under ~/Library/Preferences, however using the defaults command is much safer than manually editing a. You can check the Data Type of an existing default with defaults read-type The first will write a boolean value, while the second will write a string, In general you should close an application before changing its defaults, in the case of Dock and Finder defaults - restart them after applying the default with the killall command : If you change a default that belongs to a running application, the application won't see the change and might even overwrite the default. Restrict to the host the user is currently logged into. Host Optionally you can restrict changes to a specific hostīy default changes will apply to any host. Search for word in the user's defaults, and (for most applications this will return the behaviourĭomains Print all the domains in the user's defaults system. Rename domain old_key new_key Rename a domain key. Write domain 'plist' Save plist (a property list) as a default:

Write domain key ' value' Save a default value Read-type domain key Print the plist type Set preferences, the macOS user defaults system works with both the OS and with individual applications.