Yes. OS X is still Unix, and Unix places several files on your Hard drive which Aqua doesn't allow you to see.
If you want to see them, open the terminal and type "cd ../.." to move to your hard drive folder. Type "ls" and you'll see your regular folders plus a bunch of crazy Unix files.
You can look at them, but DO NOT DELETE OR MODIFY THEM. You could easily break your system. This probably the Apple has made them invisible.
There is no need for anyone to ever see or know about these files. Mac OS X deals with them properly without any help. Just imagine opening your hard drive and seeing a file called mach.sym. It would confuse and worry the hell out of most people, so it's best that it stays invisible.
Unix needs these "hidden files," so despite any feelings you may have about "hidden files," understand it's best that you never see them. If you ever deleted mach_kernal for instance, BAD things will happen.
Note: Some of these "hidden files" are visible in OS 9. They may be eye sores, but if you delete or move them, you won't be to get back into OS X.
<strong>A while back, I read that OS X creates and dumps hidden files on your harddrive.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Yup, just like in OS9.
What, you never saw them? That's because they were invisible.
This isn't anything new - 9 created database files, Icon files, all sorts of files that you never knew were there, unless you used a tool to make them visible.
The only difference here is that 9's invisible files weren't critical to the operation of the OS. If they were deleted, they would be recreated as necessary. If you delete many of the invisible files in OS X, you'll end up with a non-booting system.
[quote]<strong> Has anybody noticed this on 10.2?</strong><hr></blockquote>
As Son of Pismo stated, yes. The invisible files are the Unix layer that comprises the core OS. Don't worry about them, they're necessary and appropriately invisible. The only time you should be interested in seeing them is if you are doing various sorts of development on the Unix level.
Dang it. I made a mistake. I know there are hidden files in unix. Thanks for the replys.
I was trying to find out if OS X makes hidden copies of files when you save or move files around. For example, if I move some excel or word files to some different folders, will this cause OS X to create hidden files?
I'm wondering if OS 10.2 also puts hidden files in the folders of a Windows system when browsing it over a network. The thing is that the files are not invisible for the Windows user, so the next time he/she looks in that folder there will be a .DS_Store file and other OS X stuff. Not very nice...
I also wonder if OS 10.2 as in 10.1 occasionally puts a "Temporary items" folder on the root of a hard drive. This is not invisible, and it's quite disturbing to delete this every time it shows up.
I'm wondering if OS 10.2 also puts hidden files in the folders of a Windows system when browsing it over a network. The thing is that the files are not invisible for the Windows user, so the next time he/she looks in that folder there will be a .DS_Store file and other OS X stuff. Not very nice...
I also wonder if OS 10.2 as in 10.1 occasionally puts a "Temporary items" folder on the root of a hard drive. This is not invisible, and it's quite disturbing to delete this every time it shows up.
Unfortunately, 10.2 still leaves the .DS_store files scattered on the Windows servers you connect to, however they are now hidden files. So unless people choose to view hidden files on their Windows machines, no one will ever know they are there. My system admin has all of his machines set to view hidden files, so I'm not off the hook...sigh.
I thought the problem with windows is that it ended up having the resource fork stored on the server too. So we don't see the resource fork, but windows user might. Am I wrong on this one? Does it store .DS_Store files too?
Resource forks are only stored for files that actually have them. The Finder doesn't just blatently go off and add resource forks to all files. Nowadays very few documents contain resource forks.
The syntax for a resource fork "file" is: ._filename
But to answer your question, yes, they are stored as separate file on any non-HFS drive.
Comments
If you want to see them, open the terminal and type "cd ../.." to move to your hard drive folder. Type "ls" and you'll see your regular folders plus a bunch of crazy Unix files.
You can look at them, but DO NOT DELETE OR MODIFY THEM. You could easily break your system. This probably the Apple has made them invisible.
There is no need for anyone to ever see or know about these files. Mac OS X deals with them properly without any help. Just imagine opening your hard drive and seeing a file called mach.sym. It would confuse and worry the hell out of most people, so it's best that it stays invisible.
Unix needs these "hidden files," so despite any feelings you may have about "hidden files," understand it's best that you never see them. If you ever deleted mach_kernal for instance, BAD things will happen.
Note: Some of these "hidden files" are visible in OS 9. They may be eye sores, but if you delete or move them, you won't be to get back into OS X.
<strong>A while back, I read that OS X creates and dumps hidden files on your harddrive.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Yup, just like in OS9.
What, you never saw them? That's because they were invisible.
This isn't anything new - 9 created database files, Icon files, all sorts of files that you never knew were there, unless you used a tool to make them visible.
The only difference here is that 9's invisible files weren't critical to the operation of the OS. If they were deleted, they would be recreated as necessary. If you delete many of the invisible files in OS X, you'll end up with a non-booting system.
[quote]<strong> Has anybody noticed this on 10.2?</strong><hr></blockquote>
As Son of Pismo stated, yes. The invisible files are the Unix layer that comprises the core OS. Don't worry about them, they're necessary and appropriately invisible. The only time you should be interested in seeing them is if you are doing various sorts of development on the Unix level.
I was trying to find out if OS X makes hidden copies of files when you save or move files around. For example, if I move some excel or word files to some different folders, will this cause OS X to create hidden files?
I also wonder if OS 10.2 as in 10.1 occasionally puts a "Temporary items" folder on the root of a hard drive. This is not invisible, and it's quite disturbing to delete this every time it shows up.
I also wonder if OS 10.2 as in 10.1 occasionally puts a "Temporary items" folder on the root of a hard drive. This is not invisible, and it's quite disturbing to delete this every time it shows up.
I've never seen any kind of Temporary Items folder in X, even when using "ls" in the terminal, so I don't think X does this, well atleast 10.1.
Glad to hear that the .DS_Store files are invisible by default now. Very good.
<strong>Er... so the sysadmin has it set up for all machines, all logins? Well that's rather silly... not to mention draconian.
Glad to hear that the .DS_Store files are invisible by default now. Very good.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Still, the fact that OS X puts hidden files on a Windows server is discomforting. It's doesn't seem very nice to me. Does Windows do this to the Mac?
The syntax for a resource fork "file" is: ._filename
But to answer your question, yes, they are stored as separate file on any non-HFS drive.