Sometimes used by creators to give a description of the file in plain text.
Category Archive: xattr
Documentation of extended attributes (xattrs) in macOS.
Gives the normal Finder name of the app which created or edited a file. Doesn’t give its path or signature, though.
Contains a binary date-timestamp for a downloaded file. Valuable for establishing the origins of files.
Records the original URL from which a file was downloaded. Valuable for establishing the origins of files.
Contains arbitrary copyright information which remains ‘sticky’ and is not stripped when most metadata are removed from files.
The Desktop and Finder illusions rely on files having a type and creator, and an icon association. These were kept in the Desktop Database, and are now the responsibility of Launch Services.
Used to override the global mapping for any given file type, this reflects the Finder’s individual setting for a document.
Contains the legacy file type and creator information dating back to Classic Mac OS, plus 24 bytes of undocumented flags. Very common.
There’s something wrong with that file, which seems to keep crashing an app. When you can’t put your finger on what’s wrong, it’s likely to be a xattr problem.
Xattr flag to prevent the file or folder (and its contents) from being backed up by Time Machine. Used in Photos Libraries and elsewhere.
