DEFAULTS(1) General Commands Manual DEFAULTS(1)

defaults — access the Mac OS X user defaults system

defaults [-currentHost | -host hostname] read [domain [key]]


defaults [-currentHost | -host hostname] read-type domain key


defaults [-currentHost | -host hostname] write domain { 'plist' | key 'value' }


defaults [-currentHost | -host hostname] rename domain old_key new_key


defaults [-currentHost | -host hostname] delete [domain [key]]


defaults [-currentHost | -host hostname] { domains | find word | help }

Defaults allows users to read, write, and delete Mac OS X user defaults from a command-line shell. Mac OS X applications and other programs use the defaults system to record user preferences and other information that must be maintained when the applications aren't running (such as default font for new documents, or the position of an Info panel). Much of this information is accessible through an application's Preferences panel, but some of it isn't, such as the position of the Info panel. You can access this information with defaults

Since applications do access the defaults system while they're running, you shouldn't modify the defaults of a running application. If you change a default in a domain that belongs to a running application, the application won't see the change and might even overwrite the default.

User defaults belong to domains, which typically correspond to individual applications. Each domain has a dictionary of keys and values representing its defaults; for example, "Default Font" = "Helvetica". Keys are always strings, but values can be complex data structures comprising arrays, dictionaries, strings, and binary data. These data structures are stored as XML Property Lists.

Though all applications, system services, and other programs have their own domains, they also share a domain named NSGlobalDomain. If a default isn't specified in the application's domain, but is specified in NSGlobalDomain, then the application uses the value in that domain.

The commands are as follows:

Prints all of the user's defaults, for every domain, to standard output.
domain
Prints all of the user's defaults for domain to standard output.
domain key
Prints the value for the default of domain identified by key.
domain key
Prints the plist type for the given domain identified by key.
domain key 'value'
Writes value as the value for key in domain. value must be a property list, and must be enclosed in single quotes. For example: 
defaults write com.companyname.appname "Default Color" '(255, 0, 0)'

sets the value for Default Color to an array containing the strings 255, 0, 0 (the red, green, and blue components). Note that the key is enclosed in quotation marks because it contains a space.

domain 'plist'
Overwrites the defaults information in domain with that given as plist. plist must be a property list representation of a dictionary, and must be enclosed in single quotes. For example: 
defaults write com.companyname.appname '{ "Default Color" = (255, 0, 0);
				"Default Font" = Helvetica; }';

erases any previous defaults for com.companyname.appname and writes the values for the two names into the defaults system.

domain
Removes all default information for domain.
domain key
Removes the default named key from domain.
domain
Removes all default information for domain in all known containers.
domain key
Removes the default named key from domain in all known containers.
Prints the names of all domains in the user's defaults system.
word
Searches for word in the domain names, keys, and values of the user's defaults, and prints out a list of matches.
Prints a list of possible command formats.

Specifying domains:

domain
If no flag is specified, domain is a domain name of the form com.companyname.appname. Example: 
defaults read com.apple.TextEdit
application
The name of an application may be provided instead of a domain using the -app flag. Example: 
defaults read -app TextEdit
filepath
Domains may also be specified as a path to an arbitrary plist file, with or without the '.plist' extension. For example: 
defaults read ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.TextEdit/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple.TextEdit.plist

normally gives the same result as the two previous examples. In the following example:

defaults write ~/Desktop/TestFile foo bar

will write the key 'foo' with the value 'bar' into the plist file 'TestFile.plist' that is on the user's desktop. If the file does not exist, it will be created. If it does exist, the key-value pair will be added, overwriting the value of 'foo' if it already existed.

WARNING: The defaults command will be changed in an upcoming major release to only operate on preferences domains. General plist manipulation utilities will be folded into a different command-line program.

| |
Specify the global domain. '-g' and '-globalDomain' may be used as synonyms for NSGlobalDomain.

Specifying value types for preference keys:

If no type flag is provided, defaults will assume the value is a string. For best results, use one of the type flags, listed below.
Allows the user to specify a string as the value for the given preference key.
Allows the user to specify a bunch of raw data bytes as the value for the given preference key. The data must be provided in hexidecimal.
Allows the user to specify an integer as the value for the given preference key.
Allows the user to specify a floating point number as the value for the given preference key.
Allows the user to specify a boolean as the value for the given preference key. Value must be TRUE, FALSE, YES, or NO.
Allows the user to specify a date as the value for the given preference key.
Allows the user to specify an array as the value for the given preference key: 
defaults write somedomain preferenceKey -array element1 element2 element3

The specified array overwrites the value of the key if the key was present at the time of the write. If the key was not present, it is created with the new value.

Allows the user to add new elements to the end of an array for a key which has an array as its value. Usage is the same as -array above. If the key was not present, it is created with the specified array as its value.
Allows the user to add a dictionary to the defaults database for a domain. Keys and values are specified in order: 
defaults write somedomain preferenceKey -dict key1 value1 key2 value2

The specified dictionary overwrites the value of the key if the key was present at the time of the write. If the key was not present, it is created with the new value.

Allows the user to add new key/value pairs to a dictionary for a key which has a dictionary as its value. Usage is the same as -dict above. If the key was not present, it is created with the specified dictionary as its value.

Specifying a host for preferences:

Operations on the defaults database normally apply to any host the user may log in on, but may be restricted to apply only to a specific host.

If no host is provided, preferences operations will apply to any host the user may log in on.
Restricts preferences operations to the host the user is currently logged in on.
hostname
Restricts preferences operations to hostname.

Defaults can be structured in very complex ways, making it difficult for the user to enter them with this command.

First appeared in NeXTStep.

November 3, 2003 Mac OS X