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This may be a dumb question but I can't figure out how to put a dictionary in a dictionary and then nest an array in a dictionary in custom settings. I am attempting to set java plugin settings for safari and I can't figure out how to nest items in each other.
Thanks.
You have to make friends with PlistBuddy. The defaults command is not enough. See man PlistBuddy for details. And yes, case is important here. Oh, and you need to path to the tool like /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy. Here is an example, used to modify Time Machines backup Interval:
/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Set :LaunchEvents:com.apple.xpc.activity:com.apple.backupd-auto:Interval 21600" /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.backupd-auto.plist
Please note that if the keys do not exist, you will likely need to string, multiple PlistBuddy commands together, mixing the Add and Set verbs.
Reid
Apple Consultants Network
Apple Professional Services
Author "Mavericks Server – Foundation Services" :: Exclusively available in Apple's iBooks Store
The defaults command is in general an excellent tool and has one unique advantage (more later) but is pretty much useless when dealing with arrays (as said by Stronium90). For arrays plistbuddy is the way to go.
The unique advantage of defaults over plistbuddy is that when you make a change to a plist file using defaults this is automatically flushed from any cache meaning any software relying on that plist you are modifying gets to see the updates straight away. With plistbuddy the changes while saved might not be read by applications using the plist because of the caching.
A possible way round this would be to make the change using plistbuddy and then after doing so follow this up by doing a
defaults read com.yourcompany.yourfile
(If you don't specify a particular key it reads the whole file.)
How to nest dictionary in dictionary and array in dictionary
