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Controlling metadata: Tricks with persistence

Unlike file data, metadata has varying persistence. Some is ephemeral, others sticky. macOS has inbuilt mechanisms for managing the persistence of extended attributes.

November 2, 2020 Macs, Technology

Cut-Copy-Paste: Inside the Pasteboard/Clipboard

How these fundamental features work in macOS, using the pboard daemon and UTIs. With full log transcripts too.

May 12, 2020 Macs, Technology

Copy, move and clone files in APFS, a primer

What happens when you copy a large file to the same volume, or duplicate it, on the same APFS volume? Here are the answers.

April 14, 2020 Macs, Technology

Clipping files: copying through the Finder

All about textClipping and pictClipping files: what they are, and how to access the data within them.

March 5, 2019 Macs, Technology

Finder Aliases and Bookmarks: a summary

Diagram summarising how Finder Aliases work, including their resolution. And how to confuse QuickLook thumbnails.

January 12, 2019 Macs, Technology

Aliases and Bookmarks are smarter than you think

Finder Aliases can update their path information when they are resolved. Also some differences between Aliases and Bookmarks.

January 11, 2019 Macs, Technology

Inside Mojave’s Aliases and Bookmarks

Details of some of the information stored inside Bookmarks and Finder aliases, and a new version of Precize to show you that info.

January 9, 2019 Macs, Technology

Copies, clones, links and aliases: summary in tables

How to make different types of copy/clone/link/alias in the Finder and command line, their properties and uses, summarised in two table.

January 8, 2019 Macs, Technology

Links and aliases beyond local files: advanced file system techniques

If you thought the first article was lightweight fun, here’s more about links/aliases to folders, behaviour in apps, iCloud, and Bookmarks.

January 7, 2019 Macs, Technology

Aliases, hard links, symlinks, and copies in Mojave’s APFS

Mojave has 5 different types of copy/clone/alias/link, some of which can appear to behave oddly. Here they are, fully explained.

January 5, 2019 Macs, Technology

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