hoakley General, Macs, Technology

Solutions to Saturday Mac riddles 145

I hope that you enjoyed Saturday’s Mac Riddles, episode 145. Here are my solutions to them.

1: Not a quick photo for Photos, maybe for a backup instead.

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snapshot

Not a quick photo (a snapshot) for Photos, maybe for a backup instead (snapshots are made as part of Time Machine and other backups).

2: An identical copy that isn’t a full copy until it’s different.

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clone

An identical copy (a clone) that isn’t a full copy until it’s different (when first made, a clone only clones the file system metadata, not the file data, which only get copied out when the data in the clone changes from the original).

3: Although it just checks and repairs, you wouldn’t say its original name in polite company.

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fsck

Although it just checks and repairs (what fsck does for a file system), you wouldn’t say its original name in polite company (at a Q&A session at USENIX 1998, Dennis Ritchie admitted its original name was ‘fuck’).

The common factor

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All are related to the Apple File System APFS, which was five years old last week.

I look forward to your putting alternative cases.