Groups | Search | Server Info | Keyboard shortcuts | Login | Register [http] [https] [nntp] [nntps]

Groups > comp.sys.mac.system > #52536 > unrolled thread

Trick: validate the preferences plist

Back to article view | Back to comp.sys.mac.system

Contents

  Trick: validate the preferences plist JF Mezei <jfmezei.spamnot@vaxination.ca> - 2013-11-23 02:51 -0500
    Re: Trick: validate the preferences plist Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> - 2013-11-23 17:58 +0000
      Re: Trick: validate the preferences plist Wes Groleau <Groleau+news@FreeShell.org> - 2013-11-23 13:15 -0500
        Re: Trick: validate the preferences plist Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> - 2013-11-23 19:48 +0000
        Re: Trick: validate the preferences plist gtr <xxx@yyy.zzz> - 2013-11-23 12:38 -0800
    Re: Trick: validate the preferences plist Wes Groleau <Groleau+news@FreeShell.org> - 2013-11-23 17:28 -0500
      Re: Trick: validate the preferences plist JF Mezei <jfmezei.spamnot@vaxination.ca> - 2013-11-23 21:09 -0500

#52536 — Trick: validate the preferences plist

plutil -s  ~/Library/Preferences/*.plist

this will scan though all your .plists and validate the files. Tge "-s"
eliminates the result if the status is "OK".
 You may find you have a few corrupt files which you should delete.


I have found a handful in my preferences folder with errors and they
were causing a number of errors in the console.

> 13-11-23 00:04:07	PreferenceSyncClient[6259]	Preference plist was NOT a dictionary.

[toc] | [next] | [standalone]

#52546

On 2013-11-23, JF Mezei <jfmezei.spamnot@vaxination.ca> wrote:
>
> plutil -s  ~/Library/Preferences/*.plist
>
> this will scan though all your .plists and validate the files. Tge
> "-s" eliminates the result if the status is "OK".  You may find you
> have a few corrupt files which you should delete.
>
>
> I have found a handful in my preferences folder with errors and they
> were causing a number of errors in the console.
>
>> 13-11-23 00:04:07	PreferenceSyncClient[6259]	Preference plist
>> was NOT a dictionary.

Thanks for the reminder. It's been ages since I've checked mine.

Looks like my iBooks preferences file is hosed:

/Users/jollyroger/Library/Preferences/com.apple.ibooks.plist: Cannot
parse a NULL or zero-length data

*DELETE*...

-- 
E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my ravenous SPAM filter.
I often ignore posts from Google. Use a real news client instead.

JR

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#52547

On 11-23-2013, 12:58, Jolly Roger wrote:
> Looks like my iBooks preferences file is hosed:
>
> /Users/jollyroger/Library/Preferences/com.apple.ibooks.plist: Cannot
> parse a NULL or zero-length data

Since iBooks (hmmm, wasn't the name singular when it first appeared on 
iP* ?) is brand new, that probably merely means the file is empty.

That's what it meant for me:

iMac:~ wgroleau$ wc Library/Preferences/com.apple.ibooks.plist
        0       0       0 Library/Preferences/com.apple.ibooks.plist

Which actually surprised me, because I have moved things around, renamed 
some of them, and read some of them.  I would have expected "last page" 
to be stored here, as well as "which collection"


-- 
Wes Groleau

Free speech has its limits
http://Ideas.Lang-Learn.us/WWW?itemid=99

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#52555

On 2013-11-23, Wes Groleau <Groleau+news@FreeShell.org> wrote:
> On 11-23-2013, 12:58, Jolly Roger wrote:
>> Looks like my iBooks preferences file is hosed:
>>
>> /Users/jollyroger/Library/Preferences/com.apple.ibooks.plist: Cannot
>> parse a NULL or zero-length data
>
> Since iBooks (hmmm, wasn't the name singular when it first appeared on 
> iP* ?) is brand new, that probably merely means the file is empty.
>
> That's what it meant for me:
>
> iMac:~ wgroleau$ wc Library/Preferences/com.apple.ibooks.plist
>         0       0       0 Library/Preferences/com.apple.ibooks.plist
>
> Which actually surprised me, because I have moved things around, renamed 
> some of them, and read some of them.  I would have expected "last page" 
> to be stored here, as well as "which collection"

You're right. Mine is empty as well.

-- 
E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my ravenous SPAM filter.
I often ignore posts from Google. Use a real news client instead.

JR

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#52559

On 2013-11-23 18:15:36 +0000, Wes Groleau said:

> On 11-23-2013, 12:58, Jolly Roger wrote:
>> Looks like my iBooks preferences file is hosed:
>> 
>> /Users/jollyroger/Library/Preferences/com.apple.ibooks.plist: Cannot
>> parse a NULL or zero-length data
> 
> Since iBooks (hmmm, wasn't the name singular when it first appeared on 
> iP* ?) is brand new, that probably merely means the file is empty.
> 
> That's what it meant for me:
> 
> iMac:~ wgroleau$ wc Library/Preferences/com.apple.ibooks.plist
>         0       0       0 Library/Preferences/com.apple.ibooks.plist
> 
> Which actually surprised me, because I have moved things around, 
> renamed some of them, and read some of them.  I would have expected 
> "last page" to be stored here, as well as "which collection"

So, do you just delete any that are announced?

I found and kiled two, but don't know what either of them mean or are used for:

/Users/gtr/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iphotomosaic.plist: Unexpected 
character  at line 1
/Users/gtr/Library/Preferences/com.apple.quicklook.satellite.plist: 
Cannot parse a NULL or zero-length data

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#52565

On 11-23-2013, 02:51, JF Mezei wrote:
> plutil -s  ~/Library/Preferences/*.plist
>
> this will scan though all your .plists and validate the files. Tge "-s"
> eliminates the result if the status is "OK".
>   You may find you have a few corrupt files which you should delete.
>
> I have found a handful in my preferences folder with errors and they
> were causing a number of errors in the console.
>
>> 13-11-23 00:04:07	PreferenceSyncClient[6259]	Preference plist was NOT a dictionary.

Maybe the tool is choking on versions of the format that are new?

man page says it can handle version 1 of the XML format, version 1 of 
the binary format, and JSON format.

Most of my few errors said "unexpected 'b' on line one."  But the file 
was binary.  Line one after conversion to XML ?

That file starts with "bplist"

If I remove the 'b' and check again, I get "unexpected 'p' on line one." 
  But a random check of four unreported files showed they all started 
with "bplist"  And plutil -p shows that line one is a single char '{' 
indicating that the /bplis' is part of some handshaking characters.

Odd.

-- 
Wes Groleau

   “Grant me the serenity to accept those I cannot change;
    the courage to change the one I can;
    and the wisdom to know it's me.”
                                — unknown

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#52575

On 13-11-23 17:28, Wes Groleau wrote:

>>> 13-11-23 00:04:07	PreferenceSyncClient[6259]	Preference plist was NOT a dictionary.
> 
> Maybe the tool is choking on versions of the format that are new?
> 
> man page says it can handle version 1 of the XML format, version 1 of 
> the binary format, and JSON format.


I am at Snow Leopard. despite having cleanup a number of .lists that
plut8il complained about, the console long still shows
PreferenceSyncClient complaining a number of times each hour about the
above error.

Not sure if PreferenceSyncClient looks into other places than
~/Library/Preferences . Of perhaps its method of validating .plists is
different than plutil. But right now, plutil reports a clean preferences
folder while the SyncClient complains.

[toc] | [prev] | [standalone]

Back to top | Article view | comp.sys.mac.system

csiph-web