How does the defaults domain ‘Network’ work? (/Network/Library/Preferences/)

defaultsNetworkpreferences

How does the Network preference/defaults domain work on Mac OS? I see it referenced in a lot of Apple documentation, but I don’t understand this particular preference domain.

I get the user defaults in ~/Library/Preferences, and the administrator-provided defaults in /Library/Preferences. But the Network domain puzzles me.

The preferences system stores preference data in files located in the Library/Preferences folder in the appropriate file-system domain. For example, if the preference applies to a single user, the file is written to the Library/Preferences folder in the user’s home directory. If the preference applies to all users on a network, it goes in /Network/Library/Preferences. (source)

Can anyone reference some use-case based documentation? or explain how it works?

Will other Macs on the same network magically start respecting the Network preferences?

Best Answer

The network library is intended for client computers bound to a network domain server. A domain server acts as a central repository for configuration information -- mostly user accounts, but also (among other things) mount records. Mount records tell the client computers to automatically mount a certain file server share point automatically. If you use this to tell all the clients to mount a particular share point on /Network/Library, then you can put Preferences, Fonts, etc folders inside that share point and they'll be automatically available on all clients in the network domain.

This used to be a common way to manage network clients in NextStep (the predecessor of OS X), but is very rarely used in OS X. There are better ways to do most thing now, like putting managed preference settings directly in the network domain. At this point, the network library is more of a historical artifact than anything else...

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MacOS – Where is the Replace/With list stored

In 10.9 the text replacements are also stored in ~/Library/Dictionaries/CoreDataUbiquitySupport/$USER~*/UserDictionary/local/store/UserDictionary.db. UserDictionary.db is used even if iCloud is disabled and it has precedence over .GlobalPreferences.plist.

If you for example run defaults write -g NSUserDictionaryReplacementItems '({on=1;replace=aa;with=bb;})' and quit and reopen TextEdit, aa is replaced with bb in TextEdit, but the changes are reverted if you open the Text tab of the Keyboard preference pane.

You can change both UserDictionary.db and .GlobalPreferences.plist by using a script like this:

date=$(date +%s)
while read -r replace with; do
  plist+="{on=1;replace=\"$replace\";with=\"$with\";},"
  sql+="INSERT INTO 'ZUSERDICTIONARYENTRY' VALUES($((++i)),1,1,0,0,0,0,$date,NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL,\"$with\",\"$replace\",NULL);"
done < <(sed 's/\\/\\\\/g;s/"/\\"/g' ~/replacements.txt)
sqlite3 ~/Library/Dictionaries/CoreDataUbiquitySupport/$USER~*/UserDictionary/local/store/UserDictionary.db "delete from ZUSERDICTIONARYENTRY;$sql"
defaults write -g NSUserDictionaryReplacementItems "(${plist%?})"

In 10.8 and earlier versions of OS X the text replacements are stored in the NSUserReplacementItems array (not NSUserDictionaryReplacementItems) in ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist.

MacOS – How to set a specific system setting using a script or a profile? System Preferences/Networks/WiFi/Require authorisation to turn wifi on/off

See Toggle Ability to turn wifi off which shows how to do so from the command line using a script:

#!/bin/sh

# Get "Wi-Fi" or "Airport" based on your OS
wservice=`/usr/sbin/networksetup -listallnetworkservices | grep -Ei '(Wi-Fi|AirPort)'`

# Get port (usually en1)
whwport=`/usr/sbin/networksetup -listallhardwareports | awk "/$wservice/,/Ethernet Address/" | awk 'NR==2' | cut -d " " -f 2`

# Set preferences
/usr/libexec/airportd "$whwport" prefs DisconnectOnLogout=Yes JoinMode=Automatic JoinModeFallback=DoNothing RememberRecentNetworks=No RequireAdminIBSS=Yes RequireAdminNetworkChange=No RequireAdminPowerToggle=Yes

This question had been answered previously, see Enable Admin Authorization to Change wireless Networks, also on jamfnation. Seems to be a common question for school IT admins.

I found these answers being curious about what you found by using the key from the preferences.plist file (RequireAdminPowerToggle) and using Google search.

Best Answer

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MacOS – Where is the Replace/With list stored

MacOS – How to set a specific system setting using a script or a profile? System Preferences/Networks/WiFi/Require authorisation to turn wifi on/off

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