[X-Unix] Was Folder, Became Application

[Alexandre Gauthier]

On Tue, 27 May 2008 14:30:04 -0400, Jon Warms <jwarms at mac.com> wrote:
> Stroller-
> 
> Thank you. I think I misstated the problem. I can change the
> "application" back to a file, just by removing the extension.
> But I can't open it. IOW, I can't restore the hierarchical folder
> structure.
> 
> For example, I copied the large file as you suggested, and
> got another equally sized file. But when I tried to cd to the
> new file, I got "Not a directory." That's what my problem is.
> 
> And, of course, when I try to open the large file, Finder asks
> me to choose an application. As I said in my first posting, I
> can open the file in an editor (I used ed) and see the 30+
> megabytes, but I don't know how to make sense of it.
> 
> I'm assuming the original folder structure is intact, but some
> header data has been changed. The size of the large file is about
> the same as my original iTunes Library was. (I didn't track
> the exact size.)
> 
> I just was hoping there was some header data I could remove that
> would make the original folder structure reappear. Way back
> when OS X disposed of the resource forks, maybe there was
> something inserted in the header of an application file
> to replace it.
> 
> Wishful thinking?

Unless I am really mistaken, .app "files" are not files, just folder with a
bundle attribute, just like .pkg files. So if all you see is a file, and
not a directory, I believe something even more screwed up occured.


> 
> Jon
> 
> 
> On May 27, 2008, at 1:29 PM,  Stroller  wrote:
> 
>>> But I'd like to restore the clobbered folders. I used
>>> ed to look at the .app file, but I don't know what
>>> makes it an application and how to change that to
>>> a folder type.
>>
>> What kind of Application is it? A white icon with a little red &
>> yellow triangle or whatever on it?
>>
>> An application is merely a folder that has .app appended to the name.
>> So you can probably `cp -rvf ` this folder somewhere and then `mv
>> foldername.app folder`.
>