NetInfo is the system configuration
database in
NEXTSTEP and
Mac OS X versions up through 10.4 (Tiger). NetInfo replaces most of the
Unix system configuration files (they are still present for running the machine in
single user mode); most Unix
APIs wrap around NetInfo instead. NetInfo stores system wide network-type configuration information, such as users and groups, in binary databases; while
Mac OS X machine and application specific settings are stored as
plist files.
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