[sharonz]

I need an applescript.
I've already had a skeleton account (a folder that has all applications).
Before, when everyone log on, the computer created a new local account on this computer.
Now what I want is when everyone log on, no matter who it is, it can connect to the skeleton account directly instead of creating a new account(and they could have all the applications ready to go).

I hope i explained clear.
Hope someone can help me.
Thanks so much!
Sharon

[larkost]

AppleScript is not really going to help you with this.

Since you are a little vague, I am going to have to guess about what you want, and what I guess is this: You are connected to some sort of directory service such as ActiveDirectory or Apple's OpenDirectory and you are setting up a computer for semi-public access.

The things you need to decide:
1) Are you going to allow people to save things on this computer. If so, can they save things to the account, or do you want them to save things to another location (such as a different volume).

2) Are you going to clear out the shared home folder at login (losing any saved data). You will also want to consider the effect of saving cookies in this sort of situation (ie: someone logs into their webmail and saves the password, then the next person has access).

3) Have you considered using "mobile" accounts with a timeout? That will create a new home folder for each person, but then after a set number of days if they have not logged in will delete the local data. This requires some playing around if you don't have access to a Directory Service for MCX, but can be done.

There are a great number of options open to you, depending on what you actually want. But they are difficult to suggest without a lot more information. Is this a big enough project that you need a consultant?

[sharonz]

Sorry I'm really not quite familiar with Mac.
However,what I want to do is to provide a more customized environment for every one who log in this computer.
And so far, I've already had the "skeleton account".
I found an "instruction" of it online, but I had no idea how to implement it. So if you could help me to implement, that would be awesome!
The instruction is from a book called "Mac OS X Unleashed"

By John Ray and William C. Ray:



1. Create the new user with the Users control pane. Make any necessary changes to the user's configuration, such as the default GID, as shown in the previous chapter.
2. Become root (su, provide password).
3. Change directories to the skeleton user's directory (cd ~skel).
4. Tar the contents of the current directory, using the option to place the output on STDOUT (tar -cf - .) and then pipe the output of tar into a subshell. In the subshell, cd to the new user's directory, and untar from STDIN (| ( cd ~ <newusername> ; tar -xf - ) ).
5. Change directories to one level above the new user's directory (cd ~ <newusername> ; cd ../).
6. Change the ownership of everything in the new user's directory to belong to the new user and, potentially, to the user's default group if it's not the same as the skel account default group (chown -R <newusername> : <newusergroup> <newuserdirector y name> ).

Thanks!
Sharon

[larkost]

You have not answered any of the questions I asked. You need to describe your environment a lot better than you have done if you want help, and actually attempt to answer the questions.

From what I see on the hint you are trying to follow, every user has their own home directory, and this looks like they are setting up a single user, and that does not sound like what you want (at least that is not what you said).

So stop trying to skip ahead. You have to tell us what your actual goals are, then comes the troubleshooting, not a minute before. Don't get too focused on the route you think you have to take, you are going to get unusable answers that way.