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There is a slight twist to this, in that macOS does sometimes strip certain xattrs iCloud has been known for this, for instance.

Thankfully, macOS has a solution for this in extended attributes (xattrs), which can remain associated with a file no matter where itвЂ™s moved to, provided that it remains on a file system like HFS+ and APFS which supports xattrs. ThereвЂ™s also the frightening possibility that the file containing all the hashes itself becomes damaged. ItвЂ™s then easy for files to become separated from their hashes. If those files are always going to remain together in the same location, thatвЂ™s not a bad choice, but it requires that every time you move files around between folders, you have to regenerate their hashes for the hash file collection in their new folder. Some integrity-checking systems store hashes of the files theyвЂ™re protecting in a separate file inside each folder. Dintch and its relatives use the SHA-256 hash, which is considered robust enough for cryptography, and is extensively used and supported by macOS. Although not normally a problem, were a file to be maliciously corrupted that could result in undetected substitution. Those that are quickest and simplest to calculate are normally most prone to collisions, in which two different files have the same checksum. ThereвЂ™s a wide choice of different checksums and hashes which can be used for this. For macOS native file systems, theyвЂ™re an add-on for the user. When these are made by the file system, theyвЂ™re effortless for the user, but currently that isnвЂ™t an option with either HFS+ or APFS.

Most techniques of checking and maintaining file integrity start with making checksums, hashes or вЂdigestsвЂ™ of each file to be protected.

#VENTURA FILED DOCUMENTS FREE#

This article looks at an alternative, using my free family of utilities, including Dintch, which has just been updated. Ideally, we could use a file system that includes integrity checks, such as ZFS or Btrfs, but those are only readily available on external systems such as NAS, and not native to macOS. While backing them up in depth should ensure that no matter what happens, we can always find a copy, how can we tell whether itвЂ™s intact, or has been damaged or corrupted? All of us have important files we donвЂ™t want to lose.

Ventura filed documents