Terminal won't let me......

Question

Terminal won't let me......

While troubleshooting what I think is probably another issue I wanted to look at hidden files, upon typing "defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE"

I was returned the response "defaults[6854:707] Could not write domain /Users/pms/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist; exiting"

Obviously this is a problem, but I'm not really sure what sort of problem it is, or how to go about repairing it.

MacPro 3.33 Ghz, 16 Gb RAM-OTHER, Mac OS X (10.7.2), Apple TV 1, Apple TV 2.

Posted on Nov 19, 2011 3:21 AM

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Answer 1

etresoft

Level 9

56,966 points

Nov 19, 2011 7:13 AM in response to Winston Churchill

Maybe the file was just locked by another process, such as the Finder. Do you get reasonable data when you do "defaults read com.apple.finder"? If so, it should be fine.

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Answer 2

softwater

Level 5

5,556 points

Nov 19, 2011 7:22 AM in response to Winston Churchill

Change that small 'f' to a capital 'F' and the 'True' to YES, or just cut and paste this

defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES

Press 'Return', then do

killall Finder

Press Return again.

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Answer 3

Nov 19, 2011 8:03 AM in response to etresoft

I'm not sure I know what reasonable is, I have a lot of data I don't understand 😕 and much more than would be reasonable to copy and paste here unless there is a specific area we are interested in.

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Answer 4

etresoft

Level 9

56,966 points

Nov 19, 2011 9:06 AM in response to Winston Churchill

As long as you get all text data, no special characters and the Terminal doesn't beep at you, you're fine.

Maybe just try the command again. I just tried it and it worked fine. If you get an error again, you might want to investigate further.

The case in "com.apple.finder" is not significant.

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Answer 5

softwater

Level 5

5,556 points

Nov 19, 2011 9:15 AM in response to etresoft

etresoft wrote:

The case in "com.apple.finder" is not significant.

Maybe not, but these commands give different results in my system (yes, I note the difference could be the operator, but in any case, *2 works whereas *1 does not on my machine, so that's what I always use):

*1. defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE

*2 defaults write.com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES

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Answer 6

Nov 19, 2011 9:32 AM in response to etresoft

No beeps, lots of text.

However the result is repeatable everytime, even after logout and in.

Haven't tried F and YES, it isn't really the point although I'm grateful for the sugestion. I can see my hidden files I want by using "defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE" in my other user account, so my problem isn't seeing them, it's the fact that terminal isn't letting me in this particular user account.

Permissions are a little odd, I'm guessing they aren't the issue but maybe worth a mention.

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Answer 7

etresoft

Level 9

56,966 points

Nov 19, 2011 9:30 AM in response to softwater

No difference on my machine:

Pandora:~ jdaniel$ defaults read com.apple.finder > /tmp/lc.txt

Pandora:~ jdaniel$ defaults read com.apple.Finder > /tmp/uc.txt

Pandora:~ jdaniel$ diff /tmp/lc.txt /tmp/uc.txt

Pandora:~ jdaniel$

Perhaps what you are seeing may explain why you are having such trouble with Lion and railing against it in every forum here. Are you running a case-sensitive file system or something?

I suggest starting a new thread and asking about this specific issue. Include the differences between the results of those two commands. Perhaps that might help track down the source of your problems.

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Answer 8

etresoft

Level 9

56,966 points

Nov 19, 2011 12:17 PM in response to Winston Churchill

Maybe try deleting the associated lockfile and logout. Even better, deleted it with sudo from another account while logged out.

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Answer 9

baltwo

Level 9

62,386 points

Nov 19, 2011 12:18 PM in response to softwater

softwater wrote:

… these commands give different results in my system (yes, I note the difference could be the operator, but in any case, *2 works whereas *1 does not on my machine, so that's what I always use):

*1. defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE

*2 defaults write.com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES

FWIW, these both work w/o issues on Snow Leopard and Lion:

ON: defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles 1

OFF: defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles 0

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Answer 10

baltwo

Level 9

62,386 points

Nov 19, 2011 12:21 PM in response to Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill wrote:

While troubleshooting what I think is probably another issue I wanted to look at hidden files, upon typing "defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE"

I was returned the response "defaults[6854:707] Could not write domain /Users/pms/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist; exiting"

Move the com.apple.finder.plist to the Desktop, log out and back in, and see if your write to the default one via the Terminal.

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Answer 11

Nov 19, 2011 6:01 PM in response to baltwo

Oh how stupid I feel, why didn't I think to do that, thanks baltwo. 🙂

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Answer 12

baltwo

Level 9

62,386 points

Nov 19, 2011 6:07 PM in response to Winston Churchill

Happens sometimes when focused on something else. Glad it fixed the issue.

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