ResEdit changed what was in the resource fork. With Mac OS X, Apple moved away from forks to extended attributes, now used for quarantine flags and more.
resources
All about xattrs: their origin, where they’re stored, how they’re named and typed, how to find and work with them, and their common problems.
Signature checks are complex. On first run with a quarantine flag, they include the contents of the Resources folder, but seldom do after that.
General account of xattrs, their storage, types, tools for working with them, and common problems.
One of the great hidden features in macOS, xattrs are rarely used by anyone outside Apple, largely because they are so poorly supported by functions calls and tools.
A simple and concise example of a page from the documentation which we, as a community, could readily produce for macOS. Fancy giving us a hand?
They’re responsible for determining Gatekeeper’s checks, contain Finder information, and much more. With a new free tool too.
If you wanted to mess someone’s Mac up, you could go into their system files and change things around when they were out at lunch.
The Eclectic Light Company 