Apple Enterprise - NeXTanswers Support Archive

Q: How do I access the individual 'mounts' database entries using niutil? Because of the slashes in the property values, niutil doesn't seem to understand the input.

A: Indeed, if you try something straightforward like:

niutil -read . /mounts//dev/sd0a
you get an error message such as

niutil: can't open .:/mounts//dev/rsd0a
because niutil is using / to separate properties. So, let's say we have the following:

% niutil -list . /mounts 133 /dev/sd0a 134 /dev/sd0b 137 /dev/sd1a
and we want to execute niutil -read on the /dev/sd0a entry. We have to find some way to escape those slashes in the property value (``/dev/sd0a'') or we're sunk. The simple ways don't work:

% niutil -read . /mounts\/dev\/rsd0a niutil: can't open .:/mounts/dev/rsd0a % niutil -read . /mounts/'/dev/rsd0a' niutil: can't open .:/mounts//dev/rsd0a
Turns out it's necessary to use a DOUBLE backslash to get the proper escaping:

% niutil -read . /mounts/\\/dev\\/sd0a name: /dev/sd0a dir: / type: 4.3 opts: rw noquota noauto freq: 1 passno: 1
Why? Because if one types simply '\/' the shell gobbles the escape character
(the \), and transform this into '/'. If one types TWO slashes, then the shell turns
them into one, and there is one in the string passed to niutil as its argument.

QA344

Valid for 1.0, 2.0,3.0,3.1

OpenStep | Alliances | Training | Tech Support | Where to Buy