Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!pacbell.com!ames!apple!bionet!arisia!roo!mdixon From: mdixon@parc.xerox.com (Mike Dixon) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Re: Forks? Message-ID: Date: 29 Nov 90 17:44:57 GMT References: Sender: news@parc.xerox.com Distribution: na Organization: Xerox PARC, Palo Alto, CA Lines: 21 In-reply-to: jjoshua@remus.rutgers.edu's message of 29 Nov 90 04:18:49 GMT Does the NeXT file system support Forks a-la-Macintosh? In other words, where are the file's attributes stored? Are they contained in the actual file (and are invisible to you and me) or are they located somewhere else. no, NeXT files don't have forks. standard unix file attributes (e.g. creation & modification dates, length) are stored separately from the file contents; they're available through a set of system calls. NeXT-specific things like a directory's default view and a file icon's position in its parent's browser are stored in horrible little '.places' files scattered through the file system. (i'm told that 2.0 is much better about not creating these egregiously.) the mac 'file type' and 'file owner' properties have no equivalent on the NeXT; the workspace manager fakes it by using extensions on the file name. (e.g. foo.rtf, foo.frame, foo.ma) -- .mike.