command linefilesystemuti
I'd like to see if one of my file is "all over the place", ie fragmented in little pieces at different locations on my hard drive.
I'm not looking for a software like iDefrag but rather a command line utility. I know nothing of file systems, nodes, etc. Does such a CL tool exist? More generally, how do you know where files physically are?
The file I want to investigate is ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default/History indexes, but that's more of a general question.
touch -t YYYYMMDDhhmm file.ext
This will set the modification and creation dates of a file. I ran it on a file I created this morning, and here's what Get Info says:
There is not a safe and advisable way to achieve what you are after because this function of the OS is controlled by the Launch Services database. Developers register the filetypes their applications support with the OS on first launch.
The best way to get this fixed is to petition the developer to add support for the file extension in a future version of their application.
With that said you have already found the only documented way that Apple offers for overriding the edicts of the Launch Services database. If you want to dig deeper and take the road less traveled supported here are a few pointers.
There is a .plist file that governs part of what Launch Services does located at: ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.LaunchServices.plist
Apple notes that removing this plist can clear out unwanted Open With contextual menu options. But that's the opposite of what you're after.
It's a binary .plist but you could convert it to an xml version and experiment a little to see if you can come up with a recipe to achieve what you're after. This isn't advisable, it could cause harm, and it will most likely get overwritten by the OS at some point.
There is also a tool hidden a bit deeper in the OS called lsregister which could be helpful in exploring Launch Services's plumbing. Here is a helpful explanation of lsregister and its options.
Best Answer
HFSDebug was a decent tool on older version of OSX, however I do not beleive it is Lion compliant.
http://www.osxbook.com/software/hfsdebug/
The original maker of HFSDebug recommends File Xray, a commercial program to do the same tasks and more - check it out here
http://filexray.com/