MacOS Bundles (and Packages) Explained

When is a file more than just a file? When it’s actually a folder that Finder is lying to you about. Every program, every kernel extension, and everything Time Machine creates on a network share is.. a bundle. Even the Photos Library file in ~/Photos… well you get the point. Let’s unpack these things, shall we?

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How Time Machine Works

For those unaware, Time Machine is the built-in backup application within macOS that will take incremental backups of your system to an Apple Time Capsule, or another local disk. Simple premise, almost as simple in execution. Let’s take it apart, shall we?

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MacOS Installers and .DS_Store

If you’ve ever used a drive not formatted as HFS or APFS in a Mac, and later plugged it into a non-mac or poked around in the terminal, you’ve probably noticed a lot of hidden files. Almost everything has a copy that begins with ._, and there’s this ever-present .DS_Store in every directory. What’s up with this? And furthermore, how does this relate to application installers? AppleDouble and The ._ Files macOS will only create . Continue reading