Finder, SMB – Managing Dot-files and Other Meta Data on Non-Mac Network Shares

findersmb

Is there a way to tell Finder to not use (or worry about) the ._* files and other meta-data files it normally tries to use when it's on a network share?

Currently when I'm in Finder and I try to copy a file to a network share it results in an error:

The Finder can’t complete the
operation because some data in “file_name” can’t be read or written.
(Error code -36)

But I can copy the file from the terminal command line to the network share and use it from Finder afterward just fine. It seems that the meta-data isn't really needed on the network share. Is there a way to tell Finder this?

For reference, I'm using Snow Leopard and the share is a Samba share on a Linux server.

Best Answer

Is the file you're trying to copy using a resource fork?

If you're dealing with .DS_Store file issues run the following command in Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores true

If you're having issues with resource forks on Snow Leopard you may need to change your settings for the streams setting in smb.conf on the Linux machine or nsmb.conf on your local Mac. (._FILENAME files are the resource forks of the file). Check out Super User for more details on this.

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