Is there any way to prevent .DS_Store files from being generated on local drives?

[Faize]

I know about the setting for network drives, but is there an equivalent setting for local internal drives (read: Macintosh HD) as well? I'm perfectly happy with losing the ability to customize folders.

 

[hobowankenobi]

None that I am aware of. What problem are you trying to solve?

 

[Faize]

Situations in which files are sent to/received from Windows and Linux primarily. It's obvious who's using a Mac and I'm tired of hearing from other OS users about their need to clean up after me.

 

[9valkyrie]

Well you also have the ._* files which are usually created when a file is created or copied. Every time I use a drive to transfer half the files are ._* files. It seems as if they unavoidable. In my repos I always add .DS_Store and ._* to gitignore so they aren't transferred. One of my jobs other workers also complained about those files. In Windows and Linux just sort, then delete. Option #1: Before you eject the disk, open Terminal and manually remove those files. Thereby the Windows and Linux boxes won't receive them. Just right click or control-click on the drive and select "New Terminal At Folder". You need to delete after transfers are complete. If it's not a disk or a folder, can you still open a Terminal there? Some network utilities allow the ability to see .* files, so simply delete them after your transfers. Option #2: TAR the files, excluding .DS_Store and ._* during the packing. Windows, Mac, and Linux can all unpack TAR archives.

 

[arw]

Situations in which files are sent to/received from Windows and Linux primarily. It's obvious who's using a Mac and I'm tired of hearing from other OS users about their need to clean up after me.

You'd probably get more/better ideas if you'd elaborate on your exact workflow / data exchange a bit more.

1. As you said internal drives, working on a USB drive to use the following command is probably not feasible?

defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteUSBStores -bool TRUE

2. How do you "send" files so that they contain .DS_Store files? If you compress them, there are commercial tools like BetterZip that explicitly offer the option to Remove Mac specific stuff from archives:

Save Options - BetterZip - MacItBetter

Or integrate it yourself:

Compress without .DS_Store and __MACOSX

When I compress a folder or file by right click menu of Mac OS X, the archived file contains .DS_Store and __MACOSX folders. Because I share the archived file online for download, Windows users

apple.stackexchange.com

3. While it apparently does not work on internal disks anymore, I'll leave BlueHarvest here anyways:

‎BlueHarvest

‎BlueHarvest keeps your disks free of metadata while you work without you needing to lift a finger. New in version 8: BlueHarvest now includes "Storage Cleaner" which allows you to free up space used by app caches and log files. Features: Deletion of macOS metadata: .DS_Store, ._ files...

apps.apple.com

.DS_Store, ._AppleDouble, .Folders. BlueHarvest.

BlueHarvest automatically removes DS_Store files, ._ AppleDouble files and hidden folders such as .Trashes from your USB keys, SD cards, file servers.

www.zeroonetwenty.com

 

[Faize]

It's a very simple workflow so it totally slipped my mind to mention the details. Basically, it's:

1. Download a zip file attachment from email
2. Unzip
3. Make the necessary modifications
4. Clean up the .DS_Store files (I often forget this step)
5. Zip
6. Attach to email
7. Send email

Ideally, it'd be best to have a solution within the OS as this is a workplace environment so obtaining third party tools inevitably requires weeks of paperwork and approvals and waiting.

 

[fibercut]

I know about the setting for network drives, but is there an equivalent setting for local internal drives (read: Macintosh HD) as well? I'm perfectly happy with losing the ability to customize folders.

download the free to use software TinkerTool and be done using the Terminal!

 

[9valkyrie]

it'd be best to have a solution within the OS

This will zip your directory and exclude the .DS_Store and the ._ files. If you are in Finder next to the title of the folder is an icon (or mouse over and it'll appear). Drag the icon onto Terminal for the "directory/to/folder" portion of the code. You can also repeat that same the process for where you want the zip file.

zip -r zipfile directory/to/folder -x \*.DS_Store \*._\*

To verify:

zipinfo zipfile | less

 

[Faize]

This will zip your directory and exclude the .DS_Store and the ._ files. If you are in Finder next to the title of the folder is an icon (or mouse over and it'll appear). Drag the icon onto Terminal for the "directory/to/folder" portion of the code. You can also repeat that same the process for where you want the zip file.

zip -r zipfile directory/to/folder -x \*.DS_Store \*._\*

To verify:

zipinfo zipfile | less

Thanks for the script! The unzipped folder is always the same name so I can just hardcode that.

 

[9valkyrie]

The unzipped folder is always the same name so I can just hardcode that.

Yep. I recommend against absolute paths or you're going to have a messy zip file.

Also, if the zip file already exists this snippet will remove .DS_Store from the archive:

zip -d zipfile \*.DS_Store \*._\* &>/dev/null
zipinfo zipfile | grep .DS_Store    #If this echoes nothing then it completed successfully.