Locating macOS app support, preferences folders: what changed

Revision 1 to 2. Removed lines have a minus sign; added lines have a plus sign.

Old	New		Line
1	1		(macOS only)
2	2
3	3		## Overview
4	4
5	5		## Application Support and Preferences Folders
6	6
7	7		The function below will return the location the macOS user/global application support directories and the user/global application preferences directories. You would not normally need to manually locate the macOS user preferences directory because the [[Mac Preferences Read and Write\|CFPreferences read/write methods]] will do this for you automatically.
8	8
9	9		As a bonus, the function below will also return the user/global application support directories for other operating systems.
10	10
11	11		> Note: While the FSFindFolder() function was deprecated by Apple after macOS 10.8 (Mountain Lion), it is still available in macOS 10.15 (Catalina), In the interests of longevity, you may prefer to use the NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains() function instead which is available in macOS 10.0+. See [[Locating macOS significant directories]] for details.
12	12
13	13		\<syntaxhighlight lang="pascal\>
14	14
15	15		...
16	16
17	17		Uses
18	18
19	19		` {$IFDEF DARWIN}`\
20	20		` MacOSAll, Files`\
21	21		` {$ENDIF}`
22	22
23	23		...
24	24
25	25		` {platform-independent method to retrieve application support/preferences directories`\
26	26		` `\
27	27		` Global: true (global location) _or_ false (user location)`\
28	28		` FolderType: kApplicationSupportFolderType _or_ kPreferencesFolderType`\
29	29		` `\
30	30		` User preferences live in the location returned by FSFindFolder(kUserDomain,kPreferencesFolderType).`\
31	31		` User application support items live in the location returned by FSFindFolder(kUserDomain, kApplicationSupportFolderType).`\
32	32		` Global preferences live in the location returned by FSFindFolder(kLocalDomain,kPreferencesFolderType).`\
33	33		` Global application support items live in the location returned by FSFindFolder(kLocalDomain, kApplicationSupportFolderType).`\
34	34		` }`
35	35
36	36		function GetSupportDir(Global:boolean; FolderType:LongWord): String;
37	37
38	38		{\$IFDEF DARWIN} const
39	39
40	40		` kMaxPath = 1024;`
41	41
42	42		var
43	43
44	44		` theError: OSErr;`\
45	45		` theRef: FSRef;`\
46	46		` pathBuffer: PChar;`
47	47
48	48		{\$ENDIF} begin
49	49
50	50		` {$IFDEF DARWIN}`\
51	51		` theRef := Default(FSRef); // init `
52	52
53	53		` try`\
54	54		` pathBuffer := Allocmem(kMaxPath);`\
55	55		` except on exception `\
56	56		` do exit;`\
57	57		` end;`
58	58
59	59		` try`\
60	60		` Fillchar(pathBuffer^, kMaxPath, #0); // actually already done by allocmem`\
61	61		` Fillchar(theRef, Sizeof(theRef), #0); // actually already done by Default();`\
62	62		` if Global then // kLocalDomain`\
63	63		` theError := FSFindFolder(kLocalDomain, FolderType, kDontCreateFolder, theRef)`\
64	64		` else // kUserDomain`\
65	65		` theError := FSFindFolder(kUserDomain , FolderType, kDontCreateFolder, theRef);`\
66	66		` if (pathBuffer <> nil) and (theError = noErr) then`\
67	67		` begin`\
68	68		` theError := FSRefMakePath(theRef, pathBuffer, kMaxPath);`\
69	69		` if theError = noErr then `\
70	70		` GetSupportDir := UTF8ToAnsi(StrPas(pathBuffer)) + '/' + ApplicationName + '/';`\
71	71		` end;`\
72	72		` finally`\
73	73		` Freemem(pathBuffer);`\
74	74		` end`\
75	75		` {$ELSE}`\
76	76		` //`\
77	77		` // Other operating systems`\
78	78		` //`\
79	79		` GetSupportDir := GetAppConfigDirUTF8(Global);`\
80	80		` {$ENDIF}`
81	81
82	82		end;
83	83
84		-	~~</syntaxhighlight>~~
85		-
86	84		## Actual preference folder locations
87	85
88	86		- Preferences for [[Sandboxing for macOS\|sandboxed]] applications with the App Groups entitlement may be found in `~/Library/Group Containers/[app identifier]/Library/Preferences`, where \[app identifier\] is something like com.companyname.appname or org.developername.appname but may be prefaced by alphanumeric characters.
89	87
90	88		- Preferences for other [[Sandboxing for macOS\|sandboxed]] and all non-sandboxed applications may be found in `~/Library/Containers/[app identifier]/Data/Library/Preferences`, where \[app identifier\] is something like com.companyname.appname or org.developername.appname.
91	89
92	90		- Preferences which apply to all users, particularly if they apply before a user logs in, may normally be found in `/Library/Preferences`.
93	91
94	92		- Preferences which apply to an individual user, only after they have logged in, may normally be found in `~/Library/Preferences`.
95	93
96	94		Preference files should be [[macOS property list files\|property list files]] and named something like com.companyname.appname.plist or org.developername.appname.plist. Using the [[Mac Preferences Read and Write\|CFPreferences read/write methods]] will do this for you automatically and will also use the correct folder locations.
97	95
98	96		## See also
99	97
100	98		- [[Locating the macOS application resources directory]]
101	99		- [[Locating the macOS tmp directory]]
102	100		- [[Locating macOS significant directories]].
103	101		- [[Mac Preferences Read and Write\|Reading and Writing macOS Preferences]].
104	102
105	103		---
106	104		From the Free Pascal wiki, page "Locating macOS app support, preferences folders", as it stood on 2022-02-13 after a change by Thaddy, out of the wiki's dump of 2024-05-26. Copyright stays with the author who wrote it, according to the old wiki's [[Licensing]] page. If you have concerns about this material, [message the admin](/wiki-contact).
107	105		Category: Code Snippets
108	106		Category: Platform-sensitive development
109	107		Category: macOS

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