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Bugs in 'automatic login' property of System Events
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Bugs in 'automatic login' property of System Events


  • Subject: Bugs in 'automatic login' property of System Events
  • From: Bill Cheeseman <email@hidden>
  • Date: Fri, 02 Nov 2007 07:25:25 -0400
  • Thread-topic: Bugs in 'automatic login' property of System Events

Please reply here if you see different results than I do:

In Leopard, System Events has a number of new suites corresponding to panes
in the System Preferences application. One of these is the Security Suite
defining a new 'security preferences object' class corresponding to the
Security pane in System Preferences. The System Events Suite's 'application'
object defines a 'security preferences' property that you use to read and
write the properties of the 'security preferences object' in the System
Events application.

One of these properties is 'automatic login'. It is defined in the
dictionary as returning "Is automatic login allowed?"

This name and description are a little surprising, because the sense of the
corresponding setting in the Security pane is the opposite: the checkbox is
labeled "Disable automatic login". Presumably, therefore, the AppleScript
property should return true when the checkbox is unchecked (i.e., automatic
login is NOT DISABLED, or ALLOWED) and false when the checkbox is checked
(i.e., automatic login is DISABLED, or NOT ALLOWED).

In fact, however, the AppleScript property returns the opposite values,
'true' when automatic login is disabled (the Security pane checkbox is
checked), and 'false' when automatic login is enabled (the Security pane
checkbox is unchecked).

I conclude that the 'automatic login' property should be treated as if it
were named 'automatic login disabled'.

Also, the property is not marked read-only in the dictionary, but in fact
scripts to set it to 'true' or 'false' have no effect. The reason for this
may be that the Security pane does not allow you to uncheck the setting. If
you attempt to uncheck the "Disable automatic login" checkbox manually, a
sheet is presented telling you that you can't get there from here, and you
must instead use the Accounts pane to enable automatic login for specific
users -- and doing so requires authentication. At present, you can't do this
using AppleScript.

I conclude that the 'automatic login' property should be treated as if it
were marked "r/o".

I'm guessing that the Security pane was revised late in the Leopard
development cycle and the System Events application didn't have time to
catch up.

Radar bug #5575874.

--

Bill Cheeseman - email@hidden
Quechee Software, Quechee, Vermont, USA
www.quecheesoftware.com

PreFab Software - www.prefabsoftware.com


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