Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!psuvax1!rutgers!cbmvax!vu-vlsi!swatsun!jackiw From: jackiw@cs.swarthmore.edu (Nick Jackiw) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac Subject: Re: Finder bug with ./ files? Message-ID: <1989Dec4.155018.8278@cs.swarthmore.edu> Date: 4 Dec 89 15:50:18 GMT References: <5169@cbnewsc.ATT.COM> <17567@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> <11882@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> Reply-To: jackiw@cs.swarthmore.edu (Nick Jackiw) Organization: Visual Geometry Project, Swarthmore College, PA Lines: 52 bskendig@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Brian Kendig) writes: > In article <17567@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> erics@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Eric Schlegel) writes: > >In article <5169@cbnewsc.ATT.COM> stuart@cbnewsc.ATT.COM (S. D. Ericson) writes: > >>I had a finder crash the other day while copying files from > >>my harddisk to the floppy drive. I finally traced it down > >>to files with names that began with "./" . > >This is a known feature (??) of the Mac. A file that starts with a dot is > >assumed to be a driver resource, and if you try to open it, the system > >tries to open a driver in the system file. and BOOM... > >You just have to not name files starting with a dot. > > Hm, this could be more of a problem than first meets the eye... > > Unix happens to like files with periods at the beginning of their > names. > Now, ordinarily, this would cause no problem for the Finder, because > the Finder shouldn't mess with Unix files. But now we have > AppleShare... > > I regularly use AppleShare to mount my Unix directory on my Mac over > EtherTalk. This gives me easy access to my Unix files (and makes it > really easy to use files pulled off comp.binaries.mac!). Does this > mean that if I dare try to do anything with my .login, or .cshrc, or > .emacs, or .anythingelse from the Finder, my Mac will go bye-byes? > The initial diagnosis of the problem is faulty, or at least not complete. Unfortunately, I don't know what the cause of the first poster's symptoms is myself. In the never ending process of resolving INIT conflicts, many people rename files with a "." at the beginning ("." is alphabetically prior to "A", and is visible, unlike ""). This has never caused Finder copy problems. As to Appleshare conflicts, I just copied several files with dot-prefixes and dot-slash-prefixes from my internal HD to local and remote A-share servers and back; no problems reported. This is on 6.0.3, Multifinder, SE/30, loads-o-inits. Look elsewhere for the solution. -- _ _|\____ Nick Jackiw | Visual Geometry Project | Math Department / /_/ O> \ ------------+-------------------------+ Swarthmore College | O> | 215-328-8225| jackiw@cs.swarthmore.edu| Swarthmore PA 19081 \_Guernica_/ ------------+-------------------------+ USA