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OSXFAQ Mac OS X Tip-of-the-Day 
Where Are Those Files? - Preferences
By Adrian Mayo - Editor - OSXFAQ
Preference files are where applications store their settings and
current state. They are generally in a file ending with '.plist' and
are human-readable.
Double-clicking a plist file opens the Property List Editor allowing
you to view and edit a preference file. (Note: PLE is part of the
Developer Tools install). Plist files can also be opened in TextEdit,
or any other text editor.
Bad plist files can cause applications to crash, so the first step in
trouble shooting is often to trash (or move) a suspect plist file.
Where do they live?
1) 'Library:Preferences' in Your home folder
This holds plist files specific to you.
2) 'Library:Preferences' at the top level of your system disc
This holds system plist files applicable to all users (and usually
require root permissions to modify).
If you are handy with the Terminal, this nifty command can be used to
sniff out obviously bad preference files.
$ cd ~/Library/Preferences
$ find . -name "*.plist" -exec plutil -lint {} \; | grep -v ": OK"
./bad.plist:
XML parser error:
Unexpected character { at line 1
Old-style plist parser error:
Expected terminating '}' for dictionary at line 1
$
Preference files can be read and edited from the command line with
'defaults'.
$ man defaults
will tell you more.
How are preference files named?
To avoid name clashes between different software vendors, a preference
file is named according to the vendors domain name. Hence Apple use:
com.apple.application-name.plist
Enjoy !! :-)
Panther 10.3.6
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