What's the difference between copying a file and duplicating it in Mac OS X 10.3? Also, what does the terminal command "ditto" do? As far as I can tell, the only difference is in setting permissions?

Hi there, By the way great site... well, as far as i know there is no difference between the methods of copying, except the clipboard gets used?. Anyhow, for the lowdown on"ditto", check out this link:

http://www.bombich.com/mactips/image.html

And by the way, it is awesome to see programmers using Macs... Sweet!.

:cheesy:

Hey there. Thanks for the info. Here's why I am asking that question. I just partitioned my system drive to put my user folder on its own partition. When I right clicked and chose Copy to copy the folder onto the new partition, all the permissions got screwed up. (i.e. it changed the user/group of every file, etc.) When I right clicked and chose Duplicate, its copy seemed to be more precise as far as permissions went? Needless to say, "copying" screwed everything up because my user lost privileges to my own home directory!

Thanks for the link, I'll go take a look now. And thanks for the comments about the site

I just read the article you posted and I see that the command is

When I just copied my user directory, I used
as that is the command I found on some website. Would you know the difference by any chance?

The website you just sent me a link to says -rsrcFork is to preserve Resource Forks ?? But then what is -rsrc for?

Bummer on the copy biz, I normally back up 2 dvd then, do a fresh install. I hate getting ghosting/overwrites. It is best to start fresh, partition with zeros, then reinstall, but nevermind.
If your permissionsa are stuffed, go to, applications/utilities/disk utilities/ click on your drive, then select verify permissions, this will take a few minutes, then it will tell you all the permission problems. then simply click fix.

but if you already knew this then i will be quiet heh heh.

And yes, i 2 have mac envy.. I only have a g4, and dont yet have The lastest os... but soon =)

No, sorry, i am not too conversant with the command line.

But I will be poisting & viewing more to find out. =)

i am a designer foremost, learning programming as i go, so sorry, wish i could help...

Thats okay. Thanks for the link and enjoy your stay!

I found a website that answered a lot of my questions - including the differences between cp and ditto and what -rsrcFork means. Unfortunately it looks as if I should have used -rsrcFork instead of -rsrc

I did a bit more research and am even more confused. I found mention that, while the standard command to use is ditto -rsrcFork, there is only mention of rsrc in the ditto help. Not only that, but when you type ditto /h you are told that the correct command is --rsrc and not -rsrc

way over my head, lol.. BTW, how are you finding the New 'Panther' ?, I look forward to getting it soon.
the command line is number 1 reason i am a designer. =)