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The Long Run - Extended Attributes from Tiger to Catalina (4)

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Initially this vein of software tools started solely as good old 'tinkering': a new technology was out there - the extended attribute - and, like everything else on the platform, it needed looking into, and devising user-level utilities for inspection and control.

Gradually, as time went on, the nature of Apple's use of the extended attribute changed. As user-hostility on the part of Apple became more palatable, the nature of the extended attribute utilities changed perspective as well.

At time of writing, Rixstep have awareness of extended attributes built into many file management tools, particularly the three foremost applications Xfile, Xfind, and Xscan. They have four (4) command-line tools. One of them - appleclean - is freeware and freely available to all. They have five (5) Cocoa applications devoted, one way or another, to either managing extended attributes or directly combating Apple's use of the technology.

appleclean is the freeware tool that removes quarantine 'decals' off your downloads. Basically it's '/usr/bin/xattr -csrv' with a few bells and whistles put in. The idea is to keep adding to the code when needed, so you don't have to keep up at you end - just keep downloading new copies when they're announced.

cands is the command-line version of the Cocoa utility CandS ('Clean and Seal'). You drop files on the window of the Cocoa version. (The command-line version works similarly.) The Cocoa version also keeps an eye out for new files in your Downloads directory and cleans them automatically.

xabatch is the command-line version of XaBatch. Both operate as generic tools/utilities to administer extended attributes. Using a scripting language created at Rixstep, they can both add and remove extended attributes.

xattr is Rixstep's own command-line version of Apple's xattr, its Cocoa counterpart being Xattr.

Here's XaBatch running already on Mojave. Again: XaBatch can be used to both remove or add extended attributes, but here it removes sixteen extended attributes from nearly 95,000 (ninety-five thousand) files in one minute flat.



Changes is one of the more recent additions to the arsenal, and in fact is a really cool program, almost reminiscent of the old days when tinkering was still possible. Changes taps into the 'FSEvents' technology powering Spotlight.



Keymaster is the most recent addition. Even in this early edition, Keymaster represents the ultimate weapon against Apple's Gatekeeper.

Where Do You Go From Here?

The days of wonder are gone - gone are the days when people fled to the greener pastures of OS X. That world, so open and promising at the time, has become an oppressive prison, likened in the media to a 'walled garden'.

It's patently clear now that Apple management have no ambition to align with open source or to take a stand against the woeful world of Windows. Apple's 'OS X' will most likely remain, but even more likely will wither and die, if management and marketing continue on their present course.

Odds are that the more astute consumers will never trust Apple again.

But, until people find their new port in the storm, Rixstep's tools and utilities will help them survive.

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See Also
Learning Curve: Fighting Back
Industry Watch: Keymaster in Action (1)
Industry Watch: Ushering in the Roaring Twenty-Twenties with Gozer

About Rixstep

Stockholm/London-based Rixstep are a constellation of programmers and support staff from Radsoft Laboratories who tired of Windows vulnerabilities, Linux driver issues, and cursing x86 hardware all day long. Rixstep have many years of experience behind their efforts, with teaching and consulting credentials from the likes of British Aerospace, General Electric, Lockheed Martin, Lloyds TSB, SAAB Defence Systems, British Broadcasting Corporation, Barclays Bank, IBM, Microsoft, and Sony/Ericsson.

Rixstep and Radsoft products are or have been in use by Sweden's Royal Mail, Sony/Ericsson, the US Department of Defense, the offices of the US Supreme Court, the Government of Western Australia, the German Federal Police, Verizon Wireless, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Microsoft Corporation, the New York Times, Apple Inc, Oxford University, and hundreds of research institutes around the globe. See here.

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