Subject: Migrating Ether Share resource file .rsrc to Netatalk .AppleDouble

From: Xiaping Lin <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2001 15:25:54 +1000

Dear all

I am trying to convert resource file of Helios Ether Share to Netatalk
(netatalk-1.4b2+asun2.1.4) on SUN Solaris 8 machine.
Does anyone know how to do it?

I have found that the same question has been asked before(as shown
below), but can not find any answer.

http://www.umich.edu/~rsug/netatalk/archive/admins/2000/2676.html

Any help would be much appreciated!

Thanks!

--
Xiaping Lin

---

From: Thomas Kaiser <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2001 08:16:12 +0100

On Tue, 18 Dec 2001 15:25:54 +1000, Xiaping Lin wrote:

> (netatalk-1.4b2+asun2.1.4) on SUN Solaris 8 machine. Does anyone know how to
> do it?

One way is using a simple perl script to translate the metadata and resource
fork data from each format into another. Netatalk's settings can be examined
from source. For Helios' there exists a small PDF inside the support section
on <http://www.helios.de>.

Another way would be to convert the whole file temporary into MacBinary and
back into the other native format (for Helios --> ES-Convert from UG-Soft
<http://www.ugsoft-de>, for Netatalk use megatron --> 'man megatron'. But be
careful! Older versions of megatron create wrong timestamps!)

BTW: Why do you want to do this? Is this an older EtherShare installation?

Best regards,

Thomas

---

From: Jamie Flournoy <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2001 23:25:44 -0800

For those of us not using Helios EtherShare... what is it? Do you have any
documentation on the file format it uses for resources? I've heard others
on the list talking about it but I've never encountered it.

I can't promise to help (waaaaaaay too busy right now) but if you give
more info, somebody else might be able to contribute...

---

From: Thomas Kaiser <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2001 08:35:30 +0100

On Mon, 17 Dec 2001 23:25:44 -0800, Jamie Flournoy wrote:

> For those of us not using Helios EtherShare... what is it?

It's a commercial AppleTalk-/AFP-/PAP-Stack (nowadays also support for SLP
and so on) that runs on 9 different UNIXes (see <http://www.helios.de>)

Together with PCShare it is the best cross-platform filesharing solution
available, I know of (persistent IDs for years, seamless integration with
Windows, no issues with quark xpress and other mac-softwares that rely on
IDs, and finally as stable as netatalk/samba)

Regards,

Thomas

PS: Ressource-Fork specs can be read here:
    <http://www.helios.de/support/develop/apple_res.html>

---

From: Wes Yates <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2001 09:00:11 -0500

>     <http://www.helios.de/support/develop/apple_res.html>

We use it on an SGI IRIX 6.5. It supports OPI and print spooling much 
like Xinet FullPress.

-Wes
-- 

-Wes Yates
[email-masked]
wesyates.homeip.net

"Of course, you realize this means war."
-B. Bunny

---

From: Xiaping Lin <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2001 10:57:33 +1000

Hi,

Thanks to Thomas for the hopeful tips, and response from Wes Yates and Jamie
Flournoy.
I think others have explained quite well what Helios Ether Share is.

We are moving away from it to Netatalk because it's very old. Because the resource
file
format are different between Helios Ether Share and Netatalk, without converting
the resource data,
all files on Netatalk share are showing as text file on Mac machine, double click
the file will not start
the application (e.g. WORD), instead, it display the binary format of the file
with those symbols and
funny characters.

There seems no easy way to do this. I have tried to copy all files from Ether
share to a Mac, then copy all
files back to Netatalk share, everything seems to work fine, e.g. file association
works in the new Netatalk share.
But, I got following error messages in /var/adm/messages during copying:

Dec 17 15:35:12  afpd[28120]: [ID 315116 daemon.error] iconopen: open
/path/.AppleDesktop/C/CSOm.icon: No such file or directory
Dec 17 15:35:12  afpd[28120]: [ID 981220 daemon.error] afp_addicon: No such file
or directory
Dec 17 15:35:12  afpd[28120]: [ID 315116 daemon.error] iconopen: open
/path/.AppleDesktop/C/CSOm.icon: No such file or directory
Dec 17 15:35:12  afpd[28120]: [ID 981220 daemon.error] afp_addicon: No such file
or directory
:
:
Dec 18 10:30:40  afpd[2703]: [ID 315116 daemon.error] iconopen: open
/path/.AppleDesktop/M/MSWD.icon: No such file or directory
Dec 18 10:30:40  afpd[2703]: [ID 981220 daemon.error] afp_addicon: No such file or
directory
Dec 18 10:30:40  afpd[2703]: [ID 315116 daemon.error] iconopen: open
/path/.AppleDesktop/M/MSWD.icon: No such file or directory
Dec 18 10:30:40  afpd[2703]: [ID 981220 daemon.error] afp_addicon: No such file or
directory
Dec 18 10:30:40  afpd[2703]: [ID 315116 daemon.error] iconopen: open
/path/.AppleDesktop/M/MSWD.icon: No such file or directory
Dec 18 10:30:40  afpd[2703]: [ID 981220 daemon.error] afp_addicon: No such file or
directory
Dec 18 10:30:40  afpd[2703]: [ID 315116 daemon.error] iconopen: open
/path/.AppleDesktop/M/MSWD.icon: No such file or directory
Dec 18 10:30:40  afpd[2703]: [ID 981220 daemon.error] afp_addicon: No such file or
directory
:
:
Every files that was created by a Mac application generated 2 lines messages
above.

I managed to find the reason of above errors. That is I did not created the
directory with right permission to allow me
put files into the .AppleDesktop directory. As soon as I fixed this problem, icon
files gets created in .AppleDesktop.

But I still don't understand why file application association still works fine,
and Word file display "W" icon, when there
is no .AppleDesktop directory?

Looking forweard to your reply.

Thanks again!

--
Xiaping Lin

---

From: Thomas Kaiser <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2001 06:43:21 +0100

On Wed, 19 Dec 2001 10:57:33 +1000, Xiaping Lin wrote:

[EtherShare]
> We are moving away from it to Netatalk because it's very old.

Okay. It it's pre 2.0 then it might be a good idea to either upgrade or
switch to netatalk (depends on your user's needs, IMHO, and not on admin's
mind)

> Because the resource file format are different between Helios Ether Share and
> Netatalk, without converting the resource data, all files on Netatalk share
> are showing as text file on Mac machine, double click the file will not start
> with those symbols and funny characters.

Not only caused by different formats... EtherShare stores the resource file
inside the subdir '.rsrc', Netatalk in '.AppleDouble'

> There seems no easy way to do this.

You have tried the easiest of all (copying by AFP from a client mac)

> I have tried to copy all files from Ether share to a Mac, then copy all files
> back to Netatalk share, everything seems to work fine, e.g. file association

That's because AFP as protocol takes care of such things

> Dec 17 15:35:12  afpd[28120]: [ID 981220 daemon.error] afp_addicon: No such
> file or directory

wrong permissions on .AppleDesktop

> [...]
> directory with right permission to allow me put files into the .AppleDesktop
> directory. 

Correct.

> As soon as I fixed this problem, icon files gets created in .AppleDesktop.
 
:-)

> But I still don't understand why file application association still works
> fine, and Word file display "W" icon, when there is no .AppleDesktop
> directory?

If a document has no custom icon (you can assingn one via the 'info window'
in Finder) then the Finder will look into the Volumes Desktop Database
whether an (already registered) appropriate application (determining the
right one by looking at the file's creator code) has stored a specific
volume for this filetype inside the desktop database.

If there is none then the Finder will look into lolcal Desktop Databases
too.

So if you have Word installed on your mac, you will always see a Word icon
for Word files (even if there is no entry in the desktop database
'.AppleDesktop' on the Netatalk share). If another user, who doesn't have
Word, looks at such a file, it will displayed to him with a generic icon
(lacking an icon definition inside .AppleDesktop)

Regards,

Thomas