Can't find com.apple.desktop.plist file in Preferences folder.

Question

I have three desktop spaces, and I have them randomly changing backgroud from a selection of pictures in a folder. To quickly find out which picture was currently use for each desktop, I have a AppleScript that returns some infomation within the com.apple.desktop.plist file. This has been working perfectly fine in Mountain Lion.
However, after I installed the Mavericks (clean install from scratch), my script no longer works. The background images can be changed as before, but there's no com.apple.desktop.plist file exist anywhere in my hard drive.
Does anyone run into similar problems as me? It's driving me nuts! I can't think of any reason that there shouldn't be such a file... Thank you very much!

Answer 1

The returned file name from your terminal command "sqlite3 ~/Library/Application\ Support/Dock/desktoppicture.db '.dump' | grep jpg" is the file name of my current desktop picture "Earth and Moon.jpg".
The returned file names from your script:
set theResult to "Space 1 Wallpaper: ~/Pictures/Background/" & (do shell script"sqlite3 ~/Library/Application\\ Support/Dock/desktoppicture.db \"SELECT data.value FROM preferences INNER JOIN data on preferences.key=16 and preferences.picture_id=3 and preferences.data_id=data.ROWID\"") & "
Space 2 Wallpaper: ~/Pictures/Background/" & (do shell script "sqlite3 ~/Library/Application\\ Support/Dock/desktoppicture.db \"SELECT data.value FROM preferences INNER JOIN data on preferences.key=16 and preferences.picture_id=5 and preferences.data_id=data.ROWID\"") & "
Space 3 Wallpaper: ~/Pictures/Background/" & (do shell script "sqlite3 ~/Library/Application\\ Support/Dock/desktoppicture.db \"SELECT data.value FROM preferences INNER JOIN data on preferences.key=16 and preferences.picture_id=7 and preferences.data_id=data.ROWID\"")
display dialog theResult buttons {"Done"} default button 1
are
Space 1 Wallpaper: ~/Pictures/Background/3439B
Space 2 Wallpaper: ~/Pictures/Background/5244B
Space 3 Wallpaper: ~/Pictures/Background/5244B
The return from your terminal command "find ~/Pictures/iPhoto\ Library.photolibrary/Masters -name filename.jpg" is
find: /Users/Peter/Pictures/iPhoto Library.photolibrary/Masters: No such file or directory
The return from your terminal command "
readlink -f ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.preference.desktopscreeneffect.desktop/69730752/DSKiPhotoRootSource-allPhotosAlbum/9419B" is
readlink: illegal option -- f
usage: readlink [-n] [file ...]
I do have a little app (Script) which did exactly what I needed under OS X Mountain Lion but because under Mavericks Apple changed the location of the wallpaper information to a SQLite database this app is not working anymore. I could send you this app if you want but I do not know how to do this via this forum.
Thanks again for your help.