dscl(1) General Commands Manual dscl(1) NAME dscl -- Directory Service command line utility SYNOPSIS dscl [options] [datasource [command]] options: -p prompt for password -u user authenticate as user -P password authentication password -f filepath targeted local node database file path -raw don't strip off prefix from DirectoryService API constants -plist print out record(s) or attribute(s) in XML plist format -url print record attribute values in URL-style encoding -q quiet - no interactive prompt commands: -read [path [key ...]] -readall [path [key ...]] -readpl path key plist_path -readpli path key value_index plist_path -list path [key] -search path key val -create record_path [key [val ...]] -createpl record_path key plist_path val1 [val2 ...] -createpli record_path key value_index plist_path val1 [val2 ...] -append record_path key val ... -merge record_path key val ... -delete path [key [val ...]] -deletepl record_path key plist_path [val ...] -deletepli record_path key value_index plist_path [val ...] -change record_path key old_val new_val -changei record_path key val_index new_val -diff path1 path2 [key ...] -passwd user_path [new_password | old_password new_password] available only in interactive mode: -cd dir -pushd [dir] -popd -auth [user [password]] -authonly [user [password]] -quit DESCRIPTION dscl is a general-purpose utility for operating on Directory Service direc- tory nodes. Its commands allow one to create, read, and manage Directory Service data. If invoked without any commands, dscl runs in an interactive mode, reading commands from standard input. Interactive processing is ter- minated by the quit command. Leading dashes ("-") are optional for all commands. dscl operates on a datasource specified on the command line. This may be a node name or a Mac OS X Server (10.2 or later) host specified by DNS host- name or IP address. Node names may be absolute paths beginning with a slash ("/"), or relative domain paths beginning with a dot (".") character, which specifies the local domain, or "..", specifying the local domain's parent. If the hostname or IP address form is used then the user must specify the -u option and either the -P or -p options to specify an admin- istrative user and password on the remote host to authenticate with to the remote host. The exception to this is if "localhost" is specified. Passing passwords on the command line is inherently insecure and can cause password exposure. For better security do not provide the password as part of the command and you will be securely prompted. The datasource may also be specified as "localonly" in which case a sepa- rate DirectoryService daemon process is activated which contains only the Local plugin for use by dscl. If no file path is provided then access goes only to the registered local nodes on the system. However, if the -f option is specified then access is added to the local node "/Local/Target" which points to the database located at the provided filepath. One example is to provide the filepath of "/Volumes/Build100/var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default" and then access to that database is provided via the nodename "/Local/Tar- get". PATH SPECIFICATION There are two modes of operation when specifying paths to operate on. The two modes correspond to whether the datasource is a node or a host. In the case of specifying a node, the top level of paths will be record types. Ex- ample top level paths would be: /Users/alice /Groups/admin In the case of specifying a host as a data source, the top level of paths correspond to Open Directory plug-ins and Search Paths. One can specify the plug-in to traverse to a node name, after which the paths are equivalent to the former usage. The following might be the equivalent paths as the above paths: /NetInfo/root/Users/alice /LDAPv3/10.0.1.42/Groups/admin If path components contain keys or values with embedded slash characters, the slash characters must be escaped with a leading backslash character. Since the shell also processes escape characters, an extra backslash is re- quired to correctly specify an escape. For example, to read a mount record with the name "ldapserver:/Users" in the "/Mounts" path, the following path would be used: dscl . -read /Mounts/ldaphost:\/Users All pathnames are case-sensitive. COMMANDS The action of each command is described below. Some commands have aliases. For example, "cat" and "." are aliases for "read". Command aliases are listed in parentheses. read (cat .) Usage: read [path [key ...]] Prints a directory. The property key is followed by colon, then a space- separated list of the values for that property. If any value contains em- bedded spaces, the list will instead be displayed one entry per line, starting on the line after the key. If The -raw flag for raw output has been given, then "read" prints the full DirectoryService API constant for record and attribute types. If the -url flag has been specified then printed record path attribute val- ues are encoded in the style of URLs. This is useful if a script or program is trying to process the output since values will not have any spaces or other control characters. readall Usage: readall [path [key ...]] "readall" prints all the records of a given type. The output of readall is formatted in the same way as "read" with a "-" on a line as a delimeter be- tween records. readpl Usage: readpl path key plist_path Prints the contents of plist_path. The plist_path is followed by a colon, then a whitespace, and then the value for the path. If the plist_path is the key for a dictionary or array, the contents of it are displayed in plist form after the plist_path. If plist_path is the key for a string, number, bool, date, or data object, only the value is printed out after the plist_path. readpli Usage: readpli path key value_index plist_path Prints the contents of plist_path for the plist at value_index of the key. The plist_path is followed by a colon, then a whitespace, and then the value for the path. If the plist_path is the key for a dictionary or array, the contents of it are displayed in plist form after the plist_path. If plist_path is the key for a string, number, bool, date, or data object, only the value is printed out after the plist_path. list (ls) Usage: list path Lists the subdirectories of the given directory. Subdirectories are listed one per line. In the case of listing a search path, the names are preceded by an index number that can act as a shortcut and used in place of the name when specifying a path. When used in interactive mode, the path is optional. With no path given, the current directory will be used. search path key val Searches for records that match a pattern. The search is rooted at the given path. The path may be a node path or a record type path. Valid keys are Directory Service record attribute types. create (mk) Usage: create record_path [key [val ...]] Creates a record, property, or value. If only a record path is given, the "create" command will create the record if it does not exist. If a key is given, then a property with that key will be created. WARNING - If a property with the given key already exists, it will be de- stroyed and a new property will be created in its place. To add values to an existing property, use the "append" or "merge" commands. If values are included in the command, these values will be set for the given key. NOTE - Not all directory nodes support a property without a value. An error will be given if you attempt to create a property with no value in such a directory node. createpl Usage: createpl record_path key plist_path val1 [val2 ...] Creates a string, or array of strings at plist_path. If you are creating a value at the root of a plist that is an array, simply use "0" as the plist_path. If only val1 is specified, a string will be created at plist_path. If val1 val2 ... are specified, an array of strings will be created at plist_path. WARNING - If a value with the given plist_path already exists, it will be destroyed and a new value will be created in its place. createpli Usage: createpli record_path key value_index plist_path val1 [val2 ...] Creates a string, or array of strings at plist_path for the plist at value_index of the key. If you are creating a value at the root of a plist that is an array, simply use "0" as the plist_path. If only val1 is specified, a string will be created at plist_path. If val1 val2 ... are specified, an array of strings will be created at plist_path. WARNING - If a value with the given plist_path already exists, it will be destroyed and a new value will be created in its place. append Usage: append record_path key val ... Appends one or more values to a property in a given record. The property is created if it does not exist. merge Usage: merge record_path key val ... Appends one or more values to a property in a given directory if the prop- erty does not already have those values. The property is created if it does not exist. change Usage: change record_path key old_val new_val Replaces the given old value in the list of values of the given key with the new value in the specified record. changei Usage: changei path key index val Replaces the value at the given index in the list of values of the given key with the new value in the specified record. index is an integer value. An index of 1 specifies the first value. An index greater than the number of values in the list will result in an error. diff Usage: diff path1 path2 key ... Compares the data from path1 and path2 looking at the specified keys (or all if no keys are specified). delete (rm) Usage: delete path [key [val ...]] Delete a directory, property, or value. If a directory path is given, the "delete" command will delete the directory. This can only be used on record type and record paths. If a key is given, then a property with that key will be deleted. If one or more values are given, those values will be removed from the property with the given key. deletepl Usage: deletepl record_path key plist_path [val ...] Deletes a value in a plist. If no values are given "deletepl" deletes the plist_path. If one or more values are given, "deletepl" deletes the values within plist_path. deletepli Usage: deletepli record_path key value_index plist_path [val ...] Deletes a value for the plist at value_index of the key. If no values are given "deletepli" deletes the plist_path. If one or more values are given, "deletepli" deletes the values within plist_path. passwd Usage: passwd user_path [new_password | old_password new_password] Changes a password for a user. The user must be specified by full path, not just a username. If you are authenticated to the node (either by specify- ing the -u and -P flags or by using the auth command when in interactive node) then you can simply specify a new password. If you are not authenti- cated or if FileVault is enabled then the user's old password must be spec- ified. If passwords are not specified while in interactive mode, you will be prompted for them. Passing these passwords on the command line is in- herently insecure and can cause password exposure. For better security do not provide the password as part of the command and you will be securely prompted. INTERACTIVE COMMANDS cd Usage: cd dir Sets the current directory. Path names for other dscl commands may be rel- ative to the current directory. pushd (pd) Usage: pushd path Similar to the pushd command commonly found in Unix shells. When a path is specified it sets the current directory while pushing the previous direc- tory on to the directory stack. If no path is specified it exchanges the top two elements of the directory stack. It will also print the final di- rectory stack. popd Usage: popd Pops the directory stack and returns to the new top directory. It will also print the final directory stack. auth (su) Usage: auth [user [password]] Authenticate as the named user, or as "root" if no user is specified. If a password is supplied, then that password is used for authentication, other- wise the command prompts for a password. If dscl is run in host mode, then when this command is run the current di- rectory must be in the subdirectories of a node. authonly Usage: authonly [user [password]] Used to verify the password of a named user, or of "root" if no user is specified. If a password is supplied, then that password is used for au- thentication, otherwise the command prompts for a password. If dscl is run in host mode, then when this command is run the current di- rectory must be in the subdirectories of a node. quit (q) Usage: quit Ends processing of interactive commands and terminates the program. command history The up and down arrow keys will scan through the command history. tab completion When pathnames are being typed, pressing the tab key will result in a search to auto-complete the typed partial subdirectory name. It will also attempt to correct capitilization in the process. EXAMPLES -view a record in the local directory node dscl . -read /Users/www -create or replace the UserShell attribute value for the www user record dscl . -create /Users/www UserShell /usr/bin/false -create or replace the test key of the mcx_application_data:loginwindow plist value for the MCXSettings attribute of the user1 user record dscl . -createpl /Users/user1 MCXSettings mcx_applica- tion_data:loginwindow:test value -list the uniqueID values for all user records on a given node dscl /LDAPv3/ldap.company.com -list /Users UniqueID -append a value that has spaces in it dscl . -append /Users/www Comment "This is a comment" DIAGNOSTICS dscl will return -1 (255) on error. SEE ALSO DirectoryService(8), DirectoryServiceAttributes(7) MacOSX August 25, 2003 dscl(1)
NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | PATH SPECIFICATION | COMMANDS | INTERACTIVE COMMANDS | EXAMPLES | DIAGNOSTICS | SEE ALSO
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