A glitch in the Matrix (i.e some weird invisible files in /private/var/db/)

[Cham2000]

It's also unimportant for me. However...

Now that I can see the directories in Time Machine, I can do a Finder "Get Info" on the oah folder. It reports that the oah folder is consuming 2.7 GB on disk. Over time, as I try various programs, it will grow. I'm going to keep an eye on it and see if it gets much worse.

I suspect all of "aot" stuff in there can be deleted. I think "aot" means "ahead of time" compilation. Maybe when an Intel app is launched, the OS inspects it and compiles the various libraries used into versions which bridge to the ARM APIs, but only if missing from the oah cache.

Interesting stuff, but I'm definitely not going to touch it unless it grows too much.

This is exactly what I understand, of this directory, according to the articles I've read. I strongly believe that the content of the oah folder *could* be deleted completely without harms. If needed, Rosetta2 will recreate the needed files. Since this content do grows over time (mine is now at around 1GB), and I got many files from apps that I trashed, I'm very tempted in erasing all that scrap.

I would like to trash all Intel apps on my system, but I still need a few of them.

 

[fisherking]

This is exactly what I understand, of this directory, according to the articles I've read. I strongly believe that the content of the oah folder *could* be deleted completely without harms. If needed, Rosetta2 will recreate the needed files. Since this content do grows over time (mine is now at around 1GB), and I got many files from apps that I trashed, I'm very tempted in erasing all that scrap.

I would like to trash all Intel apps on my system, but I still need a few of them.

why not put a folder on the desktop, and move all the oah files there? just in case you need to put them back...

 

[Cham2000]

why not put a folder on the desktop, and move all the oah files there? just in case you need to put them back...

Too late! LOL

I just made the complete process of deactivating SIP, rebooted in Safe mode to erase all the .aot crap, rebooted to reactive SIP, and rebooted in normal mode.

The oat folder contained three things: a directory of almost one thousand of .aot files for a total of 819.1MB (the approx 1GB of crap I estimated), that I trashed without hesitation, and two tiny files that I didn't touched: oah.version (32bytes) and timestamp (8bytes). I felt these two guys are important for Rosetta2, so I didn't touched them, just in case.

Trashing the 819MB of .aot files was enough, and I don't think I'll do that again anytime soon.

I rapidly tested all my Intel apps and old screensavers, and everythings works as expected. I searched again with FAF, and Rosetta2 did recreated the needed files for my precious Intel apps and old screensavers. But geez the erased ****** apps did created hundreds of obsolete and useless .aot files in there! I'm glad I erased all of them.

I learned a few tricks while doing this!

 

[svenmany]

interesting. mine is zero bytes (on both my macs). my mini has rosetta, the air doesn't. am not running any intel apps on either mac (but needed rosetta2 for some installers...). hmm

I definitely said it badly. I do the get info on the directory within the TimeMachine backup drive. I just navigate to the last backup entry and work in there. If I use get info on that directory on the main drive I also get zero bytes.

 

[Cham2000]

I definitely said it badly. I do the get info on the directory within the TimeMachine backup drive. I just navigate to the last backup entry and work in there. If I use get info on that directory on the main drive I also get zero bytes.

View attachment 2211080

Yes, the system is designed (apparently) to report 0 byte in the oah directory, for the admin user, but it isn't true when you have full access to it. It's full of .aot files in there. After deactivating SIP, we can go in there and see everything. My own "0 byte" then translated to a 819MB of files! As I said in my previous message, I trashed all these .aot files, and everything is fine.

 

[fisherking]

I definitely said it badly. I do the get info on the directory within the TimeMachine backup drive. I just navigate to the last backup entry and work in there. If I use get info on that directory on the main drive I also get zero bytes.

View attachment 2211080

i don't use time machine, so no idea what's going on there. and that glitchy animation happens on the folder on both of my macs.... 🤷‍♂️

 

[Cham2000]

i don't use time machine, so no idea what's going on there. and that glitchy animation happens on the folder on both of my macs.... 🤷‍♂️

That's the "glitch in the Matrix"!

Probably a feature to recall the user that this folder is normally sealed.

 

[fisherking]

That's the "glitch in the Matrix"!

Probably a feature to recall the user that this folder is normally sealed.

other 'sealed' folders do not do that dance; perhaps it's animated because it's constantly active...

 

[svenmany]

other 'sealed' folders do not do that dance; perhaps it's animated because it's constantly active...

The various folders in /var/db that show the red icon respond with "Permission denied" when trying to list their contents in Terminal. Listing the oah folder gets you "Operation not permitted". I suspect the dance is a Finder bug. The API Finder is calling to present information information to the user is giving a response it wasn't expecting. I suspect it doesn't handle the response well, giving a graphical glitch, and then just keeps retrying. Just guessing.

 

[macforme17]

Bruh, are you getting a commission every time you mention “Find Any File”?

I don't blame him... it is an awesome app. Much faster than Spotlight, it has tons of options to allow you to narrow your search before it starts.... and Spotlight does not do the Libraries. I just tested it for".plist" just in case something had changed since the last time I used Spotlight... useless!