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Use the plutil program to test for corrupt preferences
Authored by: wgscott on Dec 14, '03 11:21:12PM

Replace /Users with ~/Library/Preferences
and it will just check them in your own directories.

It reported several errors for me:

zsh-% plist_checker.sh
/Library/Preferences/DirectoryService/ContactsNodeConfig.plist:
stream had too few bytes
/Library/Preferences/DirectoryService/ContactsNodeConfigBackup.plist:
stream had too few bytes
/Library/Preferences/DirectoryService/DirectoryService.plist:
stream had too few bytes
/Library/Preferences/DirectoryService/DSLDAPv3PlugInConfig.plist:
stream had too few bytes
/Library/Preferences/DirectoryService/SearchNodeConfig.plist:
stream had too few bytes
/Library/Preferences/DirectoryService/SearchNodeConfigBackup.plist:
stream had too few bytes
/Users/wgscott/Library/Preferences/IM_Installer.plist:
stream had too few bytes



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Use the plutil program to test for corrupt preferences
Authored by: aranor on Dec 15, '03 01:30:44AM

I don't know about the IM_Installer.plist (perhaps it has the same problem as Logitech Control Center in that the file is empty?), but the DirectoryService stuff simply requires that you run it as root, i.e. with sudo.



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Use the plutil program to test for corrupt preferences
Authored by: Collapse on Dec 15, '03 01:44:35AM

Try to run it with "sudo". Then it won't report those files as damaged, because it can't access them...



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Use the plutil program to test for corrupt preferences
Authored by: ssevenup on Dec 15, '03 07:22:51PM

The "stream had too few arguments" messages are mostly because the file is either zero length or has practically nothing in it. Since this is inavlid xml format the utility is doing exactly what it's supposed to. It's incumbent upon the user to identify these files and ignore the messages or delete the files (could be a waste of time if they just get recreated).

--MM


---
Mark Moorcroft
ELORET Corp. - NASA/Ames RC
Sys. Admin.



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Use the plutil program to test for corrupt preferences
Authored by: cyberwoozle on Mar 10, '04 12:57:44PM
I'm assuming that the "stream has too few bytes" error is not actually an error, merely an indication of an empty file...

anyone tried the xerces method posted on MacinTouch - it seems to give a whole lot more detail that plutil...

David...

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