macOS defaults

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macOS defaults list ​

Incomplete list of macOS defaults commands with demos ✨

🙋 What's a defaults command? ​

macOS applications and other programs use the defaults system to record user preferences and other information to be maintained when the application isn't running (font for new documents, or the position of an Info panel). Much of this information is accessible through an application's Preferences panel but sometimes they're hidden.

User defaults belong to domains, which typically correspond to individual applications. 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, it may be specified in NSGlobalDomain.

Each domain has a dictionary of keys and values representing its defaults; e.g. "Default Font" = "Helvetica". Keys are strings, values can be complex data structures comprising arrays, dictionaries, strings, and binary data. They're stored as XML Property List.

The defaults command line interface is a way to interact with these values.

Source: Real-World-Systems

Command line interface basics ​

Print the help

bash
defaults help

List all domains

bash
defaults domains

List all entries containing word

bash
defaults find ${word}

Show the type for the given domain, key

bash
defaults read-type ${domain} ${key}

Rename old_key to new_key

bash
defaults rename ${domain} ${old_key} ${new_key}

💻 List of commands ​

Dock

Screenshots

Safari

Finder

Desktop

Menu Bar

Mouse

Trackpad

Keyboard

Mission Control

Feedback Assistant

Xcode

Simulator

TextEdit

Time Machine

Activity Monitor

Messages

Miscellaneous

🤔 How do I add a command? ​

Feel free to open a GitHub issue if you know an unlisted command.

It's also possible to add the command yourself by creating a Pull Request. Please take a look at the contribution guidelines.

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