Subject: netatalk compatible utilities

From: Niall O Broin <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2001 13:27:01 +0000

This is something which has been buzzing around in my head for literally
years since shortly after I first used netatalk. Everyone who administers
system with netatalk finds himself manipulating Mac. files and writing
little scripts to take care of the pesky resource forks (don't get me wrong
- I think file metadata is a wonderful idea, and I'd love for it to be
implemented in Linux, but those on high don't seem to much like it).

I think there is a need for netatalk enabled versions of
ls,rm,cp,mv,mkdir,ln and find (on Linux systems, all except find are part of
the GNU fileutils package)

Program	Extra functionality

ls	show size of both forks, show Mac timestamps from finderinfo
rm	Remove resource forks where they exist
cp	Copy resource forks also if existing, making .AppleDouble as needed
mv	Move resource forks also if existing, making .AppleDouble as needed
mkdir	Make .AppleDouble automatically - probably not necessary
ln	Link resource forks also if existing, making .AppleDouble as needed
find	Add -mactype, -creator, -resourcesize

Of course there are probably other functionalities to be added, and other
programs which might need changing, but this lot might be a good start. I
wouldn't propose modifying the standard utilities - I'd add an extra set
called e.g. na_$UTILITY or somesuch.

A thought has just occured to me - how has Apple handled this with MacOS X ?
I presume they've built a filesystem with integrated metadata.

Regards,

Niall  O Broin

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From: Rob Lineweaver <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 3 Mar 2001 00:49:32 -0500 (EST)

>
> A thought has just occured to me - how has Apple handled this with MacOS
> X ? I presume they've built a filesystem with integrated metadata.
>

That's exactly what they did, it's just that Apple built that
filesystem long ago:  regular old HFS+ is what OS X uses for files that
need the resource forks.  At least this is how I understand it on the
couple of OS X servers I've looked at.  OS X itself goes on a UFS
partition but the AFS serves files off of HFS+.

You can even rebuild the desktop database of the HFS+ partition(s) on an
OS X server by booting the box off a Mac OS 8.x or 9.x CD and holding
down Apple-Option...
(http://til.info.apple.com/techinfo.nsf/artnum/n60401)

Rob Lineweaver
:)

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From: Niall O Broin <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 3 Mar 2001 09:06:50 +0000

> partition but the AFS serves files off of HFS+.

This is bizarre. It seems that OS X is like two operating systems running as
multi-tasking processes on the same machine. What would you do if you wanted
to use command line utilities to manipulate files on HFS+ partitions ? OS X
beta testers - what does the cp command do if you cp a file on a HFS+
partition a) to a HFS+ partition b) to a UFS partition ?

> (http://til.info.apple.com/techinfo.nsf/artnum/n60401)

Jeez - that's bizarre - regular maintenance of an OS X server so requires
rebooting the machine - welcome to Windows NT :-)

Regards,

Niall  O Broin

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2001 02:30:48 -0600 (CST)

You are confusing Mac OS X, Mac OS X Server (based on Mach 2.5) and Mac OS
X Server 2.0.

Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server 2.0 boot and root from either UFS or HFS+.

Most of its behaviors are quite standard.

-mab