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macOS 15.7.9 and 14.8.9

macOS 15.7.9 (security, full installer):

This update provides important security fixes and is recommended for all users.

macOS 14.8.9 (security, full installer):

This update provides important security fixes and is recommended for all users.

These seem to fix the same screen sharing bug as the macOS 26.6.1 update.

See also: Howard Oakley.

Previously:

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Mail Attempting to Sync Previous Recipients Despite Setting

Jeff Johnson (Hacker News):

Nonetheless, when I send an email in Mail app, from a non-iCloud account to an non-iCloud account, Mail immediately triggers an iCloud connection, as revealed by Little Snitch.

[…]

What could Mail be querying and saving in CloudKit when I’ve disabled Mail in iCloud?

[…]

As you can see in my screenshot at the beginning of this blog post, I have Contacts turned off in iCloud settings, so my Previous Recipients list should not be synced to iCloud. Nonetheless, I followed the commenter’s suggestion of logging in Terminal. I saw log messages that referred to com.apple.mail.recents, which might indicate Previous Recipients and would certainly explain why this happens when I send an email.

[…]

I do object to notifying Apple that I’ve just sent an email. That in itself seems like a violation of my privacy.

The settings are confusing, even more so than with System Preferences. If you go to System Settings β€£ Apple Account, it shows a round rect that says Mail and shows the Mail icon. If you click this, it lets you uncheck Sync this Mac for iCloud Mail. This mirrors the iCloud Mail checkbox that you get when you click See All to see the full list of apps. I don’t like how the top-level name and icon suggest that you’re going to a settings sheet for the Mail app, but then it actually gives you iCloud settings.

Importantly, there’s also another Mail checkbox in that list. It’s easy to miss because, first, why would you expect to see two Mail checkboxes?

And, second, it’s not obvious that there are actually three lists: a bunch of β€œfavorite” system apps, in non-alphabetical order, for some reason including lesser ones like Freeform and Image Playground; followed by a second list of system apps in alphabetical order; and then a third list of alphabetical third-party apps.

Mail is in the second list, along with (to me) other top-tier apps like Books and Maps. Anyway, this second Mail checkbox controls the syncing of non-mail Mail data such as rules and smart mailboxes. But not, apparently, according to Apple, the previous recipients.

Previously:

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Pasting Quoted Paths and Escaped Terminal Text

Anthony Reimer:

When you are shell scripting or working in Terminal, sometimes you want a quicker way to enter the path to a file or folder, particularly if you have already navigated to it in the Finder. One way that works in Terminal is to drag the file or folder from the Finder onto the Terminal window, which then types the path into the current command. However, another method was introduced in El Capitan (OS X 10.11) that allows you to copy the full path onto the clipboard.

In Finder, you can hold down Option and choose Edit β€£ Copy Pathname.

Starting in macOS Sequoia, copying the path to the clipboard using the method described generates a path that can be directly pasted into the Terminal or a script and be interpreted as that path without further manipulation.

It adds single quotes and or escapes characters, but only if necessary.

There are certainly some people who are unhappy with this change in behaviour but most Mac Admins will not be among them.

You can get the unescaped path via AppleScript.

Anthony Reimer (via Miles Wolbe):

Graham Pugh pointed out that if you have text on the clipboard, you have the option of pasting that text β€œescaped” in Terminal. Simply copy the text from whatever source you choose (e.g., the output of an AutoPkg run, where paths are not escaped), then in Terminal choose Edit > Pasted Escaped Text or use the shortcut Command-Control-V.

[…]

As a bonus, this concept can be applied to a tip I learned from Armin Briegel a few years ago, namely that if you select something in Terminal that you want to then paste into the current shell command, you can skip the copy-paste dance and instead just press Command-Shift-V to do it in one step (or if you prefer menus, Edit > Paste Selection). If you add the Control key to that sequence, the text pasted is escaped (Edit > Paste Escaped Selection or Command-Control-Shift-V).

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