Subject: Re: Hidden Files Not Being Copied
From: Peter Westlake (peter@harlequin.co.uk)
Date: Thu Jan 18 2001 - 13:20:46 EST
At 09:12 2001-01-18 -0800, Bryn Hughes wrote:
>It really doesn't sound like it would be impossible to impliment... something along the lines of:
>
>if <filename> starts with '.' then
> if <filename> is not '.AppleDouble' then
> copy file, stripping leading period
> set invisible to true
>
>
>I know that the MacOS by default WILL copy any hidden files/folders in a directory. If you want to see nice evidence of this copy the root level of a Mac's disk to a netatalk share. All the invisible files get copied too. In fact you'll even get messages about copying the desktop printers, as they reside inside the invisible 'Desktop Folder' at the root level of the disk. So in theory files comming FROM a UNIX share that start with a period should be made invisible.
I think changing the name is a really bad idea. If you try to duplicate
a folder, you should get a duplicate. There's no reason not to have the
dot on a Mac. If you really are duplicating, or if you are copying to
another Unix directory, then you should get a true copy when you look
at it from the Unix side. The dot prefix is only treated specially by
"ls" and a few other programs - it doesn't really mean "invisible". To
most programs, it is just part of the file's name. I suggest that if
you are doing an actual Duplicate operation (command-D), then the dotted
files should be copied. If you are copying the files to the Mac, it should
be optional whether they are ignored, copied, or copied and made invisible.
Peter.
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