Fixing Files with broken Resource Forks
This is less and less an issue but it still occasionally happens. Someone sends you a file, usually an application, that has resource forks in it. Either through the email system they used or the method the transferred to a server with the resource fork gets stripped out. Usually you’ll see it as a file with the same name as the application with a “.” in front of it.
You can recombine these into something useful with a somewhat hidden application on your Mac. It’s called, appropriately enough, “FixUpResourceForks”. It has to be run out of Terminal but it’s quite simple.
- Open Terminal
- Make sure both files reside in the same folder.
- Enter the following in Terminal on one line:
/System/Library/CoreServices/FixupResourceForks /path/to/folder
Obviously “/path/to/folder” is the path to the folder that holds both files. The easy way to find that is to type the first part of the command in Terminal followed by a space. Then drag the folder containing the files onto the Terminal window and it will automatically put in the correct path. Then just hit “Return” and it will recombine the files into one usable file again.
admin :: Mar.14.2007 :: Management, Terminal :: No Comments »