Updating a user's picture from a script

userpic.sh

#!/bin/bash

set -e

declare -x USERNAME="$1"
declare -x USERPIC="$2"

declare -r DSIMPORT_CMD="/usr/bin/dsimport"
declare -r ID_CMD="/usr/bin/id"

declare -r MAPPINGS='0x0A 0x5C 0x3A 0x2C'
declare -r ATTRS='dsRecTypeStandard:Users 2 dsAttrTypeStandard:RecordName externalbinary:dsAttrTypeStandard:JPEGPhoto'

if [ ! -f "${USERPIC}" ]; then
  echo "User image required"
fi

# Check that the username exists - exit on error
${ID_CMD} "${USERNAME}" &>/dev/null || ( echo "User does not exist" && exit 1 )

declare -r PICIMPORT="$(mktemp -t ${USERNAME}_dsimport)" || exit 1
trap 'rm -f ${PICIMPORT}' EXIT

printf "%s %s \n%s:%s" "${MAPPINGS}" "${ATTRS}" "${USERNAME}" "${USERPIC}" >"${PICIMPORT}"
${DSIMPORT_CMD} "${PICIMPORT}" /Local/Default M &&
    echo "Successfully imported ${USERPIC} for ${USERNAME}."

They might be unrelated - as in - there is more to it since I think the pic you're thinking of isn't the Login pic, but the iCloud shared pic. It will require investigation.

Yeap. You are right, I am also investigating, with no success still.

If you go to the iCloud page. It has a picture there. and even if adding a picture manually, sometimes it is removed.

Maybe the pictures are removed when I run something like this:

sudo dscl . delete /Users/${USER} JPEGPhoto
sudo dscl . delete /Users/${USER} Picture

So, it means that it is possible to change this picture. Now what is making me crazy is how we can set it back. haha

Actually, after finishing typing the message above, the image was reset again!! And this time I didn't do anything.