Tatsh/macprefs

macprefs

Command and library to export macOS preferences.

Installation

Pip

pip install macprefs

Usage

Usage: prefs-export [OPTIONS]

  Export preferences.

Options:
  -C, --config FILE               Path to the configuration file.
  -K, --deploy-key FILE           Key for pushing to Git repository.
  -c, --commit                    Commit the changes with Git.
  -d, --debug                     Enable debug logging.
  -o, --output-directory DIRECTORY
                                  Where to store the exported data.
  -h, --help                      Show this message and exit.

prefs-export is the main utility. You can export preferences, generate a ~/.macos-like script, and store the results in a Git repository.

My primary usage is like so:

prefs-export --output-directory ~/.config/defaults --commit

The default output directory is ~/Library/Application Support/macprefs.

Colours can be disabled by setting the environment variable NOCOLOR to a non-empty value.

Configuration

The configuration file is a TOML file. By default prefs-export checks for the path ~/Library/Application Support/macprefs/config.toml. Example file:

# The extend-* options extend the default values used by macprefs.
[tool.macprefs]
extend-ignore-keys = {'domain_name': ['key-to-ignore1', 're:^key-to-ignore']}
extend-ignore-domain-prefixes = ['org.gimp.gimp-']
extend-ignore-domains = ['domain1', 'domain2']
extend-ignore-key-regexes = ['QuickLookPreview_[A-Z0-9-\\.]+']
# Only set these if you want to override the default values used by macprefs.
# ignore-domain-prefixes = []
# ignore-domains = []
# ignore-key-regexes = []
# ignore-keys = {}

In `extend-ignore-keys` and `ignore-keys`, a string value to ignore can be prefixed with `re:` to
indicate it is a regular expression.

## About the generated shell script

A shell script named `exec-defaults.sh` will exist in the output directory. It may be executed, but
is primarily for copying `defaults` commands for use in your actual `~/.macos` file.

### Filtered domains and keys

Certain domains are filtered because they generally do not have anything useful to preserve, such

Some keys are filtered, as they contain values that change often and are not useful, such as session IDs and UI state (e.g. QtUi.MainWin(Geometry|State|Pos|Size), NSStatusItem Preferred Position).

Automated usage