Nested Preferences Weirdness
Douglas Adams
called Preferences. I opened that and found another called...
Preferences. After I'd found about ten Preferences folders nested inside
each other I decided just to drag the whole lot to the trash and empty
it. I did, but got an alert back saying there were too many nested
folders to be deleted. I tried to delete the folder with some other
utilities, but nothing could do it. According to Get Info there were 99
folders in the outer folder. I tried hand-deleting a whole bunch (open
first folder, rename the next folder down, drag it out, delete first
folder), but Get Info still said 99 items. I tried rebuilding the desktop
file, but it said it couldn't completely rebuild the desktop because,
guess what, too many nested folders.
I then wrote a little hypercard routine to automate the deleting process
I'd previously done by hand. So far I've deleted down to a level of
almost TEN THOUSAND nested preferences folders and there are still more
and more of them.
Can anybody cast any light?
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Douglas Adams <ada...@cerf.net>
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Jerry Kindall
: I opened my Preferences folder yesterday, and noticed a folder in it
: called Preferences. I opened that and found another called...
: Preferences. After I'd found about ten Preferences folders nested inside
: each other I decided just to drag the whole lot to the trash and empty
: it. I did, but got an alert back saying there were too many nested
: folders to be deleted. I tried to delete the folder with some other
: utilities, but nothing could do it. According to Get Info there were 99
: folders in the outer folder. I tried hand-deleting a whole bunch (open
: first folder, rename the next folder down, drag it out, delete first
: folder), but Get Info still said 99 items. I tried rebuilding the desktop
: file, but it said it couldn't completely rebuild the desktop because,
: guess what, too many nested folders.
: I then wrote a little hypercard routine to automate the deleting process
: I'd previously done by hand. So far I've deleted down to a level of
: almost TEN THOUSAND nested preferences folders and there are still more
: and more of them.
My best guess is that somehow, the folder's record in the directory has
been corrupted so that a folder inside the Preferences folder has the
same location or directory entry as the Preferences folder itself. What
this means, essentially, is that for all practical purposes the
Preferences folder is inside itself. (Turtles all the way down, so to
speak.) When a recursive delete routine goes into that folder, it will
run forever. I have no idea how this could happen on a Mac, though I've
seen similar things happen on other computers.
A utility such as Norton Disk Doctor MIGHT be able to fix a problem like
this, or at least confirm its diagnosis. If one knew enough about HFS
directory structure, one could probably fix the pointer or just delete
the offending file by hand, then run Disk Doctor to free up any blocks
that the file used. Otherwise, it's back-up-all-the-files-and-reformat-
the-drive time.
: Can anybody cast any light?
: --------------------------------------
: Douglas Adams <ada...@cerf.net>
: --------------------------------------
--
Jerry Kindall (kin...@ic.net) -- Manual Labor
I pay for this account myself and do not represent Quality Computers via
this address. For QC questions & info e-mail qua...@genie.geis.com.
Michael
dragged into the Preferences folder, does/would it replace the stack of
turtles? Would/Does changing the name of the first folder within
Preferences and then repeating the above trick, mutatis mutandis, have any
effect? I'd expect Jerry's analysis to be correct if changing the name of
one of the folders within resulted in all names being changed. And does a
complete rebuild of the desktop - using TechTool, for example - fix the
problem? Corruption in the DB and DF files might be carried over in a
vanilla command-option rebuild.
Michael Reading is its own reword.
In article <3gr08a$k...@condor.ic.net>, kin...@ic.net (Jerry Kindall) writes...
Mike Connally
Bizarre. Sounds like something out of a Douglas Adams novel.
'Twere me, I'd do a backup if possible, then I'd unleash some
sort of disk repair utility, like Disk First Aid. The disk's
catalog structure seems to be corrupt in some nefarious way,
apparently involving a recursive pointer.
--
Mike.C...@cdc.com | Control Data Limited
| 3 Roundwood Avenue
I am no-one's spokesman but my own... | Stockley Park, Uxbridge
and sometimes not even that. | UB11 1AG England
Paolo G. Cordone
Douglas Adams <ada...@cerf.net> wrote:
>I then wrote a little hypercard routine to automate the deleting process
>I'd previously done by hand. So far I've deleted down to a level of
>almost TEN THOUSAND nested preferences folders and there are still more
>and more of them.
>
>Can anybody cast any light?
Wow, this sounds intriguing. I have never heard of anything similar. What
System version are you running? There must be something terribly wrong
there. Did you try booting from a floppy?
Paolo
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Rep. Of Ireland
E-Mail Internet: pam...@internet-eireann.ie
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