dscl(1) BSD 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 directory 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 termi-nated terminated
nated 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 hostname 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 of -p options to spec-ify specify
ify an administrative user and password on the remote host to authenticate with to the remote host. The
exception to this is if "localhost" is specified.
The datasource may also be specified as "localonly" in which case a separate 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 speci-fied specified
fied 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/dslo-cal/nodes/Default" "/Volumes/Build100/var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default"
cal/nodes/Default" and then access to that database is provided via the nodename "/Local/Target".
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. Example 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 required 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. Each of the properties are printed one per line. The property key is followed by
a colon, then a space-separated list of the values for that property. Note that a value which contains
embedded spaces will appear identical to a pair of values.
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 values 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 between 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 destroyed 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 property 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 prop-erty property
erty 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_pasword | old_password new_pasword]
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 specifying 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 authenticated
then the user's old password must be specified. If passwords are not specified while in interactive
mode, you will be prompted for them.
INTERACTIVE COMMANDS
cd
Usage: cd dir
Sets the current directory. Path names for other dscl commands may be relative to the current direc-tory. directory.
tory.
pushd (pd)
Usage: pushd path
Similar to the pushd command commonly found in Unix shells. When a path is specified it sets the cur-rent current
rent directory while pushing the previous directory 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 directory
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, otherwise the command prompts for a password.
If dscl is run in host mode, then when this command is run the current directory must be in the subdi-rectories subdirectories
rectories 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 authentication, otherwise the command prompts for a password.
If dscl is run in host mode, then when this command is run the current directory must be in the subdi-rectories subdirectories
rectories 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_application_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 MacOSX
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