macOS Defaults module for Puppet

This module defines a macdefaults type which can manage preferences on macOS/OS X.

It enable Puppet to manage any setting that is changed or set using defaults.

This removes the need to include a large number of redundant exec statements to accomplish the same thing, for example:

exec {'Set default paper size to A4':
  command   => 'usr/bin/defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.print.PrintingPrefs DefaultPaperID -string "iso-a4"',
  unless    => "/usr/bin/defaults read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.print.PrintingPrefs DefaultPaperID | grep iso-a4,
}

Usage

• Add this module to your Puppet modules directory via R10k (recommended) or downloading and unzipping.
• Make use of the code in any Puppet manifest or other module:

macdefaults { 'set-a4':
  domain => '/Library/Preferences/com.apple.print.PrintingPrefs',
  key    => 'DefaultPaperID',
  type   => 'string',
  value  => 'iso-a4'
}

Values

Possible values for type are:

• string
• data
• int
• float
• bool
• data
• array
• array-add
• dict
• dict-add

Notes

For values which can be managed via a configuration profile, it is reccomended to use the mac_profiles_handler

This module can be used for general property list key manipulation, just like defaults, but it is reccomended to use Gary Larizza's property_list_key provider instead.

I didn't write 90% of this, but I can't for the life of me remember where I found it. I'm putting it on here for posterity.

This has been updated to be used as macdefaults instead of mac-defaults to be compatible with Puppet 4.

To Do

• Move the working parts to Ruby to better support dictionaries and arrays, as well as to remove the dependency on grep.