Where are all those purgeable files? Two updated utilities to help you find them: Precize and Sparsity, which will crawl folders checking which files are purgeable, sparse or clones.
Precize
How does the Finder know the right app to open a file with? Or QuickLook how to preview its contents? Or other services like Spotlight know how to index and handle files? UTIs.
Which should you use, and what are their strengths and drawbacks? Symbolic links, hard links, aliases and bookmarks explained – oh, and a mention of firmlinks too.
Confused by this on APFS? So you should be, as it’s complicated by features like snapshots, sparse files, and the file system itself. There’s no single figure.
Many think that a file’s type is determined by its extension. Although partly true, that’s indirect: it’s the UTI which sets the type, as explained here.
Adds support for reporting whether a file is a sparse file, or has been cloned, in Big Sur.
Now shows the space taken on disk, which makes it easy to identify sparse files.
How can you create and resolve Finder Aliases at the command line? And two further utilities you may find helpful for working with Aliases.
This has minor improvements to work better with Big Sur, and now runs native on Intel and Apple Silicon Macs.
Nine more free apps available as Universal binaries, from Cirrus to xattred.
The Eclectic Light Company 