[MacTUG] Fun with plists

[Dani Roloson]

I was dreading having to do 150 slightly different commands
on 150 machines until I thought of using a plist as a hash.

% defaults write HostUser mac1 Tom
(creates ~/Library/Preferences/HostUser.plist)
% defaults write HostUser mac2 Harry
% defaults write HostUser mac3 Dick
% defaults read HostUser mac3 
Dick
% defaults read HostUser 
{
    mac1 = Tom;
    mac2 = Harry;
    mac3 = Dick;
}

% scutil --set ComputerName "mac2"
(This will already be set for the machines.)

(Spread the HostUser.plist and the following script to the machines.)
#!/bin/tcsh
set myhost=`scutil --get ComputerName`
echo $myhost
set myuser=`defaults read HostUser $myhost`
echo $myuser
... do whatever with $myuser e.g. create account ...

(Execute the script using UNIX under ARD.)
mac2
Harry

PlistBuddy, part of the Xcode install, is also handy.
http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/man8/PlistBuddy.8.html

Dani