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If I want to change some Dock preferences (for example delay before appears of Dock) I should type in terminal:

defaults write com.apple.dock autohide-delay -float 0.1;

I tried to find all available options for Dock and find this link in Apple Developer documentation. But it doesn't contain a description of autohide-delay.

I conclude that that list is not complete. Because it also doesn't contain options I know: 

-autohide-time-modifier 
-autohide-delay
-tilesize
-mcx-expose-disabled

Where I can I find the full list Dock preferences?

Kenenbek Arzymatov
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3 Answers3

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Apple does not publish this and it’s considered the equivalent of a private API for developers. When Apple wants to test a new feature, they first expose it with hidden switches and then after it’s been tested and doesn’t cause issues, then it may become an official setting. Until it’s publicly documented, these change from build to build and sometimes can cause things to not work.

The only listing of these is by people who disassemble the code and then publish their work. You’re not missing any resource here, as this is undocumented and doesn’t always stay stable, so the effort to document these is quite high from a labor perspective.

bmike
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2

Some options are available by going to the Dock under System Preferences. Some are hidden but here are some of them.

  1. Add macOS Dock spacers
  2. Create macOS Dock recent items stacks
  3. Configure your recent items stacks
  4. Have the Dock show only active apps
  5. Activate the Dock’s single-app mode
  6. Highlight hidden apps in the Dock
  7. Alter the Dock’s appearance
  8. Tweak Dock animation speeds
  9. Reset the Dock to its default state

This link has the terminal commands for these features. The link also points out that you should make a backup of the com.apple.dock.plist file.

Here is another link with some of the hidden options.

You can set a theme for your doc using cdock

Natsfan
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  • This answer is tantamount to a link only answer as it really is rather dependent on the information in the links. You should consider expanding your answer to include relevant information from the links so if they become unavailable this answer could stand by itself. – user3439894 Apr 28 '20 at 19:32
  • I think this is super useful and +1 it - link only is a low bar - literally less than three words and a link... I can’t say anyone’s judgement is wrong, but If this is low quality, it’s not because it’s in link only territory - even the first version of this post – bmike Apr 28 '20 at 19:42
  • @bmike I take what was said in the OP as looking for defaults write com.apple.dock ... options, not changing settings though the UI in System Preferences > Dock, which I'm pretty sure the OP already knows about, and the links are the only thing in this answer that address what was asked in the OP and is why I said why I did. IMO sans the content of the links the rest of this answer has nothing to do with what was asked! – user3439894 Apr 28 '20 at 22:35
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Defaults apparently is just an application, thus it has manual page, since it is built-in unix app, entering "man defaults" to the terminal will output all of its functionality, including 'find' function. It will search domain names, keys and values for matches in a request, thus you can search for keywords like animation, movement, e.t.c. an example bellow:

defaults find com.apple.dock animation

Unfortunately, Apple doesn't update it's documentation often, especially with description on non-tested nor non-essential features, so this is the most effective way of looking for the functionality I could think of.

P.S. If you have questions regarding unix systems - in most cases they are majorly resolved with man command, which shows you the documentation for the command you would like to use, it doesn't show you relations between them though. Example:

man defaults

I hope this helped you even four years later.

Даниил Носиков
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