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Category Archive: xattr

Documentation of extended attributes (xattrs) in macOS.

Easy access to xattrs from Swift 4: Martin R’s URL extension

Extension functions for the URL class which provide full access to xattrs without leaving the comfort of Swift 4.

December 12, 2017 Macs, Technology, xattr

xattr: com.apple.ResourceFork, a classic Mac resource fork

A traditional ‘resource fork’ containing resource structures, lumped into a binary xattr. Still commonly used for image previews, and found in many older files.

December 12, 2017 xattr

xattr: template for type page

Standard layout and content template for xattr type pages here.

December 11, 2017 xattr

xattr: com.apple.quarantine, the quarantine flag

This UTF-8 string contains the Gatekeeper score, the system time of download, downloading agent, and the event UUID. Can force a full Gatekeeper check.

December 11, 2017 xattr

xattr: com.apple.TextEncoding, reveals text file encoding

Indicates the encoding used for the contents of the text file, e.g. UTF-8, Macintosh, Windows-1252. Used in many text documents.

December 11, 2017 xattr

Last Week on My Mac: Documenting the hidden

They may not cause many problems, but xattrs are both very useful and extensively used by macOS and third-party products. It’s time to discover more, and document them.

December 10, 2017 Macs, Technology, xattr

Extended attributes in High Sierra 10.13.2

Even a lean and simple High Sierra system has many xattrs of many types, and plenty of files still have ‘resource forks’. Plus details of some important xattrs used by Apple’s system files.

December 8, 2017 Macs, Technology, xattr

Extended attributes: surprisingly common, and information-rich

They’re almost invisible, but surprisingly widely used. xattrs come in very many different types, and contain valuable information. Here are results from analysing most of a Sierra startup volume.

December 7, 2017 Macs, Technology, xattr

Beyond Scripting in Swift: When xattrs are not like files

NSDocument is based on the data stored in the data fork of a file. Could it be modified to work with xattrs instead? And dipping my toes into NSTableView.

September 18, 2017 Macs, Technology, xattr

Beyond Scripting in Swift: Direct access to xattrs, calling C, and converting Data to Strings

T T Read More

Using wrappers to call C functions which give direct access to xattrs, handling throws, and converting arbitrary Data to Strings.

September 6, 2017 Macs, Technology, xattr

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