HFS Filesystem

HFS Filesystem

[Simon Bazley]

What information or documentation is there on HFS and writing linux applications what use resource forks and other mac quirkiness.
In particular how do I write an application that uses all the data availiable on macs (and hence HFS) but not commonly used.  Whats more if there is a method to access that data, what happens if I try using it on a non HFS file system.

I'm entertaining thoughts on tidying up some of the underlying code in netatalk if you're wondering why I'm asking all this.

Simon Bazley

Re: HFS Filesystem

[Tom Sightler]

Simon Bazley wrote:

 > What information or documentation is there on HFS and writing linux
 > applications what use resource forks and other mac quirkiness. In
 > particular how do I write an application that uses all the data
 > availiable on macs (and hence HFS) but not commonly used.  Whats
 > more if there is a method to access that data, what happens if I
 > try using it on a non HFS file system.
 >
 > I'm entertaining thoughts on tidying up some of the underlying code
 > in netatalk if you're wondering why I'm asking all this.

I'd strongly suggest that you post this same question on the 
linuxppc-dev lists, if you haven't already.  My experience with Linux on 
PPC based machines has shown those lists to offer much more support than 
the standard development list here for that platform.

Take a look a lists.linuxppc.org and see if they can help you out.

Later,
Tom

Re: HFS Filesystem

[Alan Cox]

> What information or documentation is there on HFS and writing linux 
> applications what use resource forks and other mac quirkiness.
> In particular how do I write an application that uses all the data 
> availiable on macs (and hence HFS) but not commonly used.  Whats more if 
> there is a method to access that data, what happens if I try using it on a
> non HFS file system.

netatalk uses its own resource fork magic using .AppleDouble directories
or a few other configurable formats. HFS on 2.2 also supports the same
format so magically you can get real fork access

For 2.4 the HFS code still needs some serious cleanup, and for 2.5 I suspect
either someone fixes the locking on or it gets deleted

Re: HFS Filesystem

[Benjamin Herrenschmidt]

>netatalk uses its own resource fork magic using .AppleDouble directories
>or a few other configurable formats. HFS on 2.2 also supports the same
>format so magically you can get real fork access
>
>For 2.4 the HFS code still needs some serious cleanup, and for 2.5 I suspect
>either someone fixes the locking on or it gets deleted

I've started reworking the locking but well... got distracted and never
finished.

It's on my list of things to do asap though.

Ben. 

Re: HFS Filesystem

[Anthony DeRobertis]

On Sunday, November 11, 2001, at 07:32 , Simon Bazley wrote:

> What information or documentation is there on HFS and writing 
> linux applications what use resource forks and other mac 
> quirkiness.

I'd suggest Inside Macintosh: Files, which is probably still 
available on http://developer.apple.com/. There are also the 
tech notes. And, of course, Darwin has apple's own HFS (and 
HFS+) implementation.