[thelist] Stupid Question re finder.dat

[aardvark]

> From: Anne and Steve Millington <anne at millingtonstrings.com>
[...]
> I've inherited a site that has a bunch of files scattered throughout
> the directories, with the names FINDER.DAT and RESOURCE.FRK.  What are
> these? Some sort of system or editing software- generated files for
> keeping track of relative paths or something?  Can I get rid of them,
> or move them around from desktop to server without consequence?

whomever maintained the site last used a MacIntosh, and when 
that person made updates, he/she uploaded *everything* to the 
site... which is really kinda silly...  this is assuming the site is 
*not* hosted on a Mac server...

archive everything, then you should be good to wipe them all...

the resource fork folder holds file information like icons and file 
types... unlike windows, which relies on the extension to determine 
what a file is, the Mac uses the resource fork folder to tell it... i 
believe finder.dat holds window settings (what size the folder was 
viewed at, how the icons were arranged, etc.)...