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We use Dockutil under High Sierra to set the Dock when a user logs in. A policy is scoped to All Users, has a Trigger of Login, and a Scope of once per user per computer. The policy runs the script below. I logged in as myself and the Dock was set correctly. I dragged one App off the Dock and one App onto the Dock. I logged off and back on and the Dock was set back to the default. The App I dragged off was now in the Dock and the App I dragged on was not. Any ideas?



!/bin/sh



/usr/local/bin/dockutil --remove all --no-restart /Users/$3
/usr/local/bin/dockutil --add /Applications/Google Chrome.app --position 1 --no-restart /Users/$3
/usr/local/bin/dockutil --add /Applications/Microsoft Word.app --position 2 --no-restart /Users/$3
/usr/local/bin/dockutil --add /Applications/Microsoft Excel.app --position 3 --no-restart /Users/$3
/usr/local/bin/dockutil --add /Applications/Calculator.app --position 4 --no-restart /Users/$3
/usr/local/bin/dockutil --add /Applications/Dashboard.app --position 5 --no-restart /Users/$3
/usr/local/bin/dockutil --add /Applications/Vmware Horizon Client.app --position 6 --no-restart /Users/$3
/usr/local/bin/dockutil --add /Applications/Photos.app --position 7 --no-restart /Users/$3
/usr/local/bin/dockutil --add /Applications/iTunes.app --position 8 /Users/$3

You are likely editing the wrong dock plist depending on how dockutil is being called or depending on how the $3 is resolving, or something else like that.



Try this:



#!/bin/bash



# Include Standard PATH for commands

export PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin



whoami="/usr/bin/whoami"

echo="/bin/echo"

python="/usr/bin/python"

sudo="/usr/bin/sudo"

dockutil="/usr/local/bin/dockutil"

killall="/usr/bin/killall"



loggedInUser=$($python -c 'from SystemConfiguration import SCDynamicStoreCopyConsoleUser; import sys; username = (SCDynamicStoreCopyConsoleUser(None, None, None) or [None])[0]; username = [username,""][username in [u"loginwindow", None, u""]]; sys.stdout.write(username + "

");')



##########################################################################################

# Check if script is running as root

##########################################################################################

$echo



if [ `$whoami` != root ]; then

    $echo "[error] This script must be run using sudo or as root. Exiting..."

    exit 1

fi



##########################################################################################

# Use Dockutil to Modify Logged-In User's Dock

##########################################################################################

$echo "----------------------------------------------------------------------"

$echo "Use Dockutil to Modify Logged-In User's Dock"

$echo "----------------------------------------------------------------------"

$echo

$echo "Removing all Items from the Logged-In User's Dock..."

$sudo -u $loggedInUser $dockutil --remove all --no-restart



$echo "Creating New Dock..."

$echo

$echo "Adding "Finder"..."



$echo "Adding "Google Chrome"..."

$sudo -u $loggedInUser $dockutil --add "/Applications/Google Chrome.app" --no-restart



$echo "Adding "Microsoft Word"..."

$sudo -u $loggedInUser $dockutil --add "/Applications/Microsoft Word.app" --no-restart



$echo "Adding "Microsoft Excel"..."

$sudo -u $loggedInUser $dockutil --add "/Applications/Microsoft Excel.app" --no-restart



$echo "Adding "Calculator"..."

$sudo -u $loggedInUser $dockutil --add "/Applications/Calculator.app" --no-restart



$echo "Adding "Dashboard"..."

$sudo -u $loggedInUser $dockutil --add "/Applications/Dashboard.app" --no-restart



$echo "Adding "VMware Horizon Client"..."

$sudo -u $loggedInUser $dockutil --add "/Applications/Vmware Horizon Client.app" --no-restart



$echo "Adding "Photos"..."

$sudo -u $loggedInUser $dockutil --add "/Applications/Photos.app" --no-restart



$echo "Adding "iTunes"..."

$sudo -u $loggedInUser $dockutil --add "/Applications/iTunes.app" --no-restart





$echo "Restarting Dock..."

$sudo -u $loggedInUser $killall Dock



exit 0

Oh also, I suggest pulling the commit of Dockutil from GitHub because there have been a few bug fixes added.

I am already running Dockutil 2.0.5 which is the latest. I tried the script provided and it sets the Dock correctly but I can still not add items or remove items from the Dock and make it stick. A log off and back and the Dock is back to the default set by Dockutil.
Other ideas?

I figured it out. I had another policy that runs that add a single item to the Dock. This policy was set to run every time a user logged in. Basically I wanted to make sure one item was always in the Dock. The script behind this other policy was the root cause of the problem. Once I fixed that script, everything worked fine.

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