• Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security

    Mac OS X 10.5: NetInfo (or the lack thereof)

    As many will already be aware, there’s no NetInfo in Leopard. So where are those pesky account settings stored? Well, local user account settings are now stored in plist files. The plist files are stored in the /var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default/users directory for users or /var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default/groups folder for groups. Password hashes are stored in the /var/db/shadow/hash folder. Inside each plist file for user accounts you can augment (or create) attributes required in order to perform certain actions. So, for example, if you want to change the location of your home folder you can open the users plist file and search for the home key and edit it’s contents.

  • Mac OS X Server

    List All Groups With NetInfo from 10.3

    The nireport command can be used to list all of the groups in a NetInfo structure. To use nireport, you will need to specify the domain and a directory (in that order). Optionally, you can also specify a timeout for the query (-T) and whether or not the domain should be treated as tagged (-t). So if your NetInfo domain were local then the following would show all of the groups in a 10.3 Server-based Open Directory: nireport . /groups The equivalent in 10.4 and up would then be: dscl . -list /Groups Or for users: dscl . -list /Users To then show all of the users in a group…