Subject: Re: [netatalk-admins] Unix command support for AppleDouble files
From: bsmith@h-e.com
Date: Fri Mar 27 1998 - 17:24:33 EST
> Usually for us the issue is a file not being able to be
> opened by its application on a Mac, as a result of the
> resource fork not being there, or it having the wrong
> permissions.
This is the most common problem here too, because somebody messed up the name or
location relationship of the two parts of a file. But there are other problems
too, read on.
> But does it cause system problems of any sort, when
> a .AppleDouble file sits out there with no match in
> its parent directory?
Orphaned ".AppleDouble" files don't bother netatalk directly, it never even
looks at them, so there is no system-level problem other than the space these
files take up. But they can cause problems of a more subtle sort. Suppose you
drag a file into a netatalk-shared directory from the Mac, let's call it
"testfile" and let's say it's an Excel worksheet (just an example, I've had this
happen with two different applications). Then you go to that directory from the
Unix side and "rm testfile", which leaves an orphan in ".AppleDouble/testfile".
Later on you use a Unix text editor to create another file called "testfile" in
the directory. Now when you look in the directory through netatalk, "testfile"
appears to be an Excel file, because the new Unix-created "testfile" got paired
with the old Mac-created ".AppleDouble/testfile". But of course when you try to
double-click on the file, Excel chokes on it. The extension mappings from
AppleVolumes.system don't apply because as far as netatalk can tell the file has
already been explictly set to Excel's creator and type.
I have been trying to handle this by educating the users, but despite repeated
explanations some of them just aren't catching on to how netatalk works. I'd
much rather have the Unix commands automatically deal with the netatalk
complications.
Bob Smith
Hammett & Edison, Inc.
bsmith@h-e.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b28 : Sat Dec 18 1999 - 16:32:00 EST