Apple Mac OS X Server Creating a Group Folder, Viewing the Workgroup a User Selects at Login

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This will prompt you for your diradmin password, which is much more secure than putting the password in the command you are sending.

See the dseditgroup man page for more information.

Creating a Group Folder

A group folder facilitates the sharing of files between members of a group. Once you set up a group folder in Workgroup Manager you need to use the CreateGroupFolder tool to create the actual group folder. Group folders should be created on the server that hosts the group folders.

To create a group folder:

$ sudo /usr/bin/CreateGroupFolder

See the CreateGroupFolder man page for more information.

Viewing the Workgroup a User Selects at Login

When you define preferences for a group, it is known as a workgroup. A workgroup provides you with a way to manage the working environment of group members. Any preferences you define for a Mac OS X workgroup are stored in the group account. When a user selects a workgroup at login, a property list (plist) file stores the short name of the selected workgroup in its “workgroup” key.

Important: Viewing the workgroup a user selects at login must be performed on the client computer.

To view the workgroup a user selects at login, from the client computer:

1Connect to the client computer using an account with administrator privileges.

$ ssh admin@computer.name

Replace admin with the short name of the client computer’s administrator and computer.name with the IP address or the DNS name of the client computer.

2Convert the binary com.apple.MCX.plist file to XML format.

$ sudo plutil -convert xml1 /Library/Managed Preferences/shortname/

com.apple.MCX.plist

Replace shortname with the short name of the logged-in client account.

3View the key “workgroup” in /Library/Managed Preferences/shortname/ com.apple.MCX.plist file.

$ cat /Library/Managed Preferences/shortname/com.apple.MCX.plist

Replace shortname with the short name of the logged-in client account.

Chapter 8 Working with Users and Groups