Re: Forked Files

[Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net>]

David Empson writes ...
> 
> Robert Flossmann <robert.flossmann@freenet.de> wrote:
> 
> > could someone please help me understand the concept of forked files, as
> > I keep running into these when toying around with my Apple IIe/IIGS and
> > Macs. I understand that there are two parts to an Apple file, the data
> > fork and the resource fork. Now for some questions:
> >
> > *     Are the two forks stored in a contiguous manner (1 file) or as two
> > seperate files?
> 
> They are effectively two separate files, but they are tied together by a
> single directory entry.  When an application deals with the file, it has
> to treat the resource and data fork independently.  For example, to copy
> a file with resource and data forks requires opening the source and
> destination data fork, reading from the source and writing to the
> destination, closing the forks, then repeating the whole process for the
> resource forks.
> 
 ....
> 
> Here endeth the lesson for today.  :-)


     Cool lesson! Good to have this explained. (A lot of users think "forked"
is a misspelling.)



Rubywand