dscl

• Directory Service command line utility

Path Specification

• You can specify the datasource as a node or as a host
• The path specification differs depending on the kind of datasource chosen

# as a node
dscl . -list "/Users"

# as a host
dscl localhost -list "/Local/Default/Users"

-f

• Specifies a local node database file path to be opened as a host

node_database='/Volumes/Macintosh HD - Data/private/var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default'
dscl -f "$node_database" localhost -list "/Local/Default/Users"
dscl -f "$node_database" localhost -passwd "/Local/Default/Users/root"

list

dscl . -list "/"
dscl . -list "/Users"

read

dscl . -read "/Users/root"

create

• Create a new user

dscl . -create "/Users/myuser"

passwd

• Change password

# Change root password
dscl . -passwd "/Users/root"

delete

dscl . -delete /Groups/mygroup
dscl . -delete /Users/myuser