hi all

Question

hi all <https blog kolide com checking macos screenlock remotely 62ab056274f0> is an excellent blog post on retrieving whether screenlock is enabled and the grace period but is there a way to actually retrieve the screen saver timeout AFAICT the screenlock is only enabled if either the display turns off timeout is easy to find from plist tables or if the screensaver turns on and we want the screensaver time + grace period to see the total time for when a password is required after a workstation goes idle

Utsav Shah · Answer

aha ``` Users $currentUser Library Preferences ByHost com apple screensaver idleTime```

seph · Answer

That blog article has suggested SQL to return whether it s enabled and the grace period

seph · Answer

I can t remember if that plist is still valid Offhand I would not recomment it

seph · Answer

Oh I see You re asking about the difference between timeout and grace period

seph · Answer

Yeah I think the plist you cite is still correct

Utsav Shah · Answer

thanks all of these different plist locations has been driving me crazy

Utsav Shah · Answer

` Library Preferences com apple PowerManagement plist` for system wide display time settings the `ByHost` ones for screensaver idle time and fortunately the `screenlock` table gets us values for screenlock enabled and the grace period