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INTRODUCTION

dockutil is a command line utility for managing macOS dock items. It is currently written in Swift.

• Compatible with macOS Big Sur through Sonoma (use 2.x version for older OSes)
• Add, List, Move, Find, Remove Dock Items
• Supports Applications, Folders, Stacks, URLs.
• Can act on a specific dock plist or every dock plist in a folder of home directories

LICENSE

Apache 2

CHANGELOG

Version 3.1.1

• Fix bug where dockutil would mistakenly call sudo to run as user
• Ensure paths to apps in Cryptexes get added as normal apps rather than symlinks

Version 3.1.0

• Convert to Swift Package Manager package

Version 3.0.0

• Rewrite in Swift for macOS 12.3 compatibility
• Feature compatibility with previous version
• Find, Add, Remove by bundle identifier, URL or path
• Allow multiple actions in single run (add, remove can be combined and specified multiple times)

Version 2.0.5

• 10.12 fix for Dock restart
• Add and remove spacer tiles

Version 2.0.4

• Allow removal by app bundle identifier (credit to Yoann Gini)
• Bug fixes for plist quoting (credit to VitosX)

Version 2.0.3

• Wait for dock to be setup by Apple before modifying (useful for first login scripts)

Version 2.0.2

• Bug Fix for 10.9.x

Version 2.0.1

• Yosemite compatibility
• Support for multiple removals

Version 2.0.0

• Remove restart of cfprefsd in favor of using defaults
• Bumped to version 2 because some backend changes may break compatibility with older OS versions
• Please test and report any issues

Version 1.1.4

• Restart cfprefsd before restarting Dock to ensure settings are read

Version 1.1.3

• fix issue with missing labels and removals

Version 1.1.2

• fix issue with replacing a url dock item
• add legacy support --hupdock option for backward compatibility
• fix paths with spaces when passing full path to plist

Version 1.1

• fixes many issues with paths (should now work with Default User Template)
• adds option to not restart the dock (--no-restart)
• fixes issue where item would be added multiple times (use --replacing to update an existing item)
• resolves deprecation warnings
• adds option to remove all items (--remove all)
• fix issue with removals when a url exists in a dock
• adds option --version to output version

USAGE

usage:     dockutil -h
usage:     dockutil --add <path to item> | <url> [--label <label>] [ folder_options ] [ position_options ] [--no-restart] [ plist_location_specification ]
usage:     dockutil --remove <dock item label> | <app bundle id> | all | spacer-tiles [--no-restart] [ plist_location_specification ]
usage:     dockutil --move <dock item label>  position_options [ plist_location_specification ]
usage:     dockutil --find <dock item label> [ plist_location_specification ]
usage:     dockutil --list [ plist_location_specification ]
usage:     dockutil --version

position_options:
  --replacing <dock item label name>                            replaces the item with the given dock label or adds the item to the end if item to replace is not found
  --position [ index_number | beginning | end | middle ]        inserts the item at a fixed position: can be an position by index number or keyword
  --after <dock item label name>                                inserts the item immediately after the given dock label or at the end if the item is not found
  --before <dock item label name>                               inserts the item immediately before the given dock label or at the end if the item is not found
  --section [ apps | others ]                                   specifies whether the item should be added to the apps or others section

plist_location_specifications:
  <path to a specific plist>                                    default is the dock plist for current user
  <path to a home directory>
  --allhomes                                                    attempts to locate all home directories and perform the operation on each of them
  --homeloc                                                     overrides the default /Users location for home directories

folder_options:
  --view [grid|fan|list|auto]                                   stack view option
  --display [folder|stack]                                      how to display a folder's icon
  --sort [name|dateadded|datemodified|datecreated|kind]         sets sorting option for a folder view

Examples:
  The following adds TextEdit.app to the end of the current user's dock:
           dockutil --add /Applications/TextEdit.app

  The following replaces Time Machine with TextEdit.app in the current user's dock:
           dockutil --add /Applications/TextEdit.app --replacing 'Time Machine'

  The following adds TextEdit.app after the item Time Machine in every user's dock on that machine:
           dockutil --add /Applications/TextEdit.app --after 'Time Machine' --allhomes

  The following adds ~/Downloads as a grid stack displayed as a folder for every user's dock on that machine:
           dockutil --add '~/Downloads' --view grid --display folder --allhomes

  The following adds a url dock item after the Downloads dock item for every user's dock on that machine:
           dockutil --add vnc://miniserver.local --label 'Mini VNC' --after Downloads --allhomes

  The following removes System Preferences from every user's dock on that machine:
           dockutil --remove 'System Preferences' --allhomes

  The following moves System Preferences to the second slot on every user's dock on that machine:
           dockutil --move 'System Preferences' --position 2 --allhomes

  The following finds any instance of iTunes in the specified home directory's dock:
           dockutil --find iTunes /Users/jsmith

  The following lists all dock items for all home directories at homeloc in the form: item<tab>path<tab><section>tab<plist>
           dockutil --list --homeloc /Volumes/RAID/Homes --allhomes

  The following adds Firefox after Safari in the Default User Template without restarting the Dock
           dockutil --add /Applications/Firefox.app --after Safari --no-restart '/System/Library/User Template/English.lproj'

  The following adds a spacer tile in the apps section after Mail
           dockutil --add '' --type spacer --section apps --after Mail

  The following removes all spacer tiles
           dockutil --remove spacer-tiles

Notes:
  When specifying a relative path like ~/Documents with the --allhomes option, ~/Documents must be quoted like '~/Documents' to get the item relative to each home
  When specifying paths in macOS 11 Big Sur or higher note that the path to applications is /System/Applications so to add TextEdit.app :
          dockutil --add /System/Applications/TextEdit.app

LIMITATIONS AND DEPENDENCIES