Subject: Hidden Files Not Being Copied

From: Basil Hussain <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 16 Jan 2001 13:04:11 +0000

Hi all,

I just noticed something the other day when I was doing some organisation of
files on a Netatalk-hosted share.

I duplicated (i.e. Apple-D, not a copy) a whole folder, but discovered that
hidden files (i.e. anything starting with a dot) were not copied! For
example, this folder contained two hidden files, .htaccess and .htpasswd -
they hadn't been copied in the duplication!

Would this be a problem at the MacOS client end (MacOS 9.0.4), or something
to-do with Netatalk (netatalk 1.4.99-20001108)?

Regards,

------------------------------------------------
Basil Hussain ([email-masked])

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From: Bob Rogers <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2001 16:46:42 -0500

From: Basil Hussain <[email-masked]>
   Date: Tue, 16 Jan 2001 13:04:11 +0000

This is more or less a feature of netatalk, in that it keeps the hidden
files hidden from the Macs.  Otherwise, ".", "..", and ".AppleDouble"
would be problematic; you might get .AppleDouble directories in your
.AppleDouble directories . . .

					-- Bob Rogers

---

From: Basil Hussain <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 18 Jan 2001 08:40:22 +0000

Hi,

> .AppleDouble directories . . .

Yes, I agree - if it's hidden, it should be hidden and the .AppleDouble
directories need to be handled transparently and not copied - to do so would
mess things up a fair bit, I would imagine. But, still, if it is Netatalk
choosing not to copy *other* 'dot' files or directories upon a duplication
of the containing directory, then this is plainly not correct!

Anyway, I was thinking about this and (unless anyone who knows Netatalk can
tell me the real answer) I've come to the conclusion that it's probably not
Netatalk's fault.

In my experience, MacOS is quite dumb when it comes to some things, and
thinking about the way it probably works leads me to imagine that when you
initiate a duplication of a directory (or just a straight copy) MacOS
recursively traverses the directory structure and tells the underlying
filesystem - in this case, Netatalk - to individually copy each file. But,
as at the MacOS end it doesn't even *know* about any hidden files, it won't
tell the filesystem to copy them. So basically, if you can't see it, you
can't copy it.

But, as I said, I might be wrong. Really, the base of this problem really
stems from the clash between MacOS having no notion of hidden files and UNIX
systems making prolific use of them. Ah, well...

Regards,

P.S. By the way, what is the difference between a duplication and a copy?
All I know is that you can duplicate the folder of something like WebSTAR
whilst it's running, but not copy it)