[getreal]

I am writing an open source program that reads the com.apple.mail.plist file. It works great on Mac OS X 10.2, but someone suggested that it wasn't working on 10.4. Unfortunately, they haven't provided enough details to know what's going on. I'm living in a rather remote part of the world and haven't been able to upgrade my Mac to the latest version of the OS.

Could someone please post the sections of their ~Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.list files that provide the "delivery accounts" (i.e., the SMTP server info) and the "mail accounts" (i.e., the POP3 and IMAP accounts).

In 10.2, the com.apple.mail.plist file is an XML which you can display in a plain text editor. It sounds like the file may have changed a good bit in 10.3. I'm not sure if it changed again in 10.4 or not.

Do the DeliveryAccounts and MailAccounts keys still exist? Do they still have the same subkeys?

Any help would be appreciated and thanks in advance!

Here's what the snippets from a 10.2 file look like that I'd like to see from a 10.3 and 10.4 file.

<key>DeliveryAccounts</key>
<array>
<dict>
<key>AccountType</key>
<string>SMTPAccount</string>
<key>Hostname</key>
<string>test.com</string>
<key>ShouldUseAuthentication</key>
<string>NO</string>
</dict>
</array>
<key>MailAccounts</key>
<array>
<dict>
<key>AccountName</key>
<string>Test IMAP</string>
<key>AccountPath</key>
<string>~/Library/Mail/IMAP-test@mail.test.com</string>
<key>AccountType</key>
<string>IMAPAccount</string>
<key>CompactWhenClosingMailboxes</key>
<string>YES</string>
<key>EmailAddresses</key>
<array>
<string>test@test.com</string>
</array>
<key>FullUserName</key>
<string>Test</string>
<key>Hostname</key>
<string>imap.test.com</string>
<key>MoveDeletedMessagesToTrash</key>
<string>YES</string>
<key>NumberOfDaysToKeepJunk</key>
<string>-1</string>
<key>NumberOfDaysToKeepSentMessages</key>
<string>-1</string>
<key>NumberOfDaysToKeepTrash</key>
<string>7</string>
<key>SMTPIdentifier</key>
<string>test.com:test</string>
<key>StoreDraftsOnServer</key>
<string>NO</string>
<key>StoreSentMessagesOnServer</key>
<string>NO</string>
<key>Username</key>
<string>test</string>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>AccountName</key>
<string>Test Pop</string>
<key>AccountPath</key>
<string>~/Library/Mail/POP-test@pop.test.com</string>
<key>AccountType</key>
<string>POPAccount</string>
<key>BigMessageWarningSize</key>
<string>-1</string>
<key>DeleteMessagesOnServerInterval</key>
<integer>7</integer>
<key>DeletionPolicy</key>
<string>AfterInterval</string>
<key>DraftsMailboxName</key>
<string>Drafts</string>
<key>EmailAddresses</key>
<array>
<string>test.pop@test.com</string>
</array>
<key>FullUserName</key>
<string>Test Pop</string>
<key>Hostname</key>
<string>pop.test.com</string>
<key>MoveDeletedMessagesToTrash</key>
<string>YES</string>
<key>NumberOfDaysToKeepJunk</key>
<string>-1</string>
<key>NumberOfDaysToKeepSentMessages</key>
<string>-1</string>
<key>NumberOfDaysToKeepTrash</key>
<string>7</string>
<key>SMTPIdentifier</key>
<string>127.0.0.1</string>
<key>SentMessagesMailboxName</key>
<string>Sent Messages</string>
<key>TrashMailboxName</key>
<string>Deleted Messages</string>
<key>Username</key>
<string>test</string>
</dict>
</array>

[saddino]

Plists in 10.4 can be binary, so are no longer guranateed to be XML text files. You need to parse these using the appropriate Cocoa/Carbon calls if you want to read them.

[getreal]

saddino, thank you *very* much for the info!

Do you know if the com.apple.mail.plist still uses the same keys for the delivery and mail accounts? Further research implied that they are the same, but I couldn't find anyone who stated it explicitly.

Thanks again!

[saddino]

Yes, they appear to be the same (at least on my system). Good luck!

[getreal]

Thanks again, saddino. I've already implemented the changes and it works on 10.2 if I convert the plist to a binary file so hopefully I'll get the same results on 10.4. Other websites suggest it should be the same ... so we'll see.

Again, thank you!