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Why not use OS X's Cmd-F ?
Authored by: geohar on Nov 19, '02 04:51:00AM

cmd-F will not display these files as the dot means they are hidden. Besides which, as far as the finder is concerned they are the same file as the one named <x> for the ._<x> filename. There are very good reasons for being wary of removing these. I assume everyone knows what these files are?

If not, let me recap. OSX (and earlier mac OSes) files have two 'forks' a resource fork and a data fork. Both can be very important. The resource fork contains, as well as resources, the creator code and type code for the file. Because HFS can support two forked files directly, you only see one filename. However, may file systems do not support two forks. Therefore, OSX creates a hidden file ._<x> for the filename <x>. The ._<x> file contains the resource fork. The finder, and many of the programming APIs hide this from the user, allowing the fact that there are really two separate files in place. Instead, most operations just see one file with two forks.

OK. So how does this affect you? Well if you blast away the ._<x> files, then all the resoruce forks are gone. You might not care - perhaps. Perhaps the file associations will be screwy. Perhaps (if you have apps or complex files which need resource forks) some stuff wont work. At any rate, you should know what you're doing before you do it. You have been warned.



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Noooooooooooooooooo!
Authored by: kennyfett on Nov 20, '02 10:30:49AM

Yeah, I can attest to the 'riskiness' of this action..

I just tested it out last night on a mounted Windows volume I had some backup installer files on. They were all in Stuffit format- I do this only because storing .dmg files and whatnot gets screwed up when copied back onto the Mac...

Anyway, I deleted about 10 or 12 ._ files that accompanied some of those .sit files, and then I decided to test out whethere or not those .sit files would still open.

Well, much to my horror, Stuffit Deluxe (or any OTHER program on my HD) would recognize the file for what it was! Now I have to go back and reload several files- including the iCal and iPhoto installers, which I stuffed and put in storage...

Be warned- this procedure wrecks some types of files!



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