Cann't remove faArchive flag from file on MacOS

[Theo11]

Hi,

Files are on a SD card (MS-DOS) formatted and are using the Archive (Secure flag).
I need to rename files, but I first need to remove the faArchive flag.
This my code:

Code: Pascal  [Select][+][-]

1. aFileAttr := FileGetAttrUTF8(aOldName);
2. if (aFileAttr and  faArchive ) >  0 then
3. begin
4.      aFileAttr := aFileAttr and (not faArchive);
5.      FileSetAttrUTF8(aOldName, aFileAttr);
6. end;
7. if (RenameFileUTF8(aOldName, aNewName) = false) then
8.                 res := QuestionDlg ('Abort purging tracks?', 'Something went wrong renaming track ' + ExtractFileNameOnly(aOldName),mtError, [mbOk, mbNo], 0)
9. else
10.     // file is renamed
11.     FileSetAttrUTF8(aNewName, aFileAttr and faArchive);  [/size]  

     
Also coping the content to a directory on the Mac gives the same result.

How can I remove the faArchive flag?

Thanks,
Theo.

[Theo11]

Hi,

I have written a small test program to analyse the problem:

Code: Pascal  [Select][+][-]

1. unit Unit1;
2.  
3. {$mode objfpc}{$H+}
4.  
5. interface
6.  
7. uses
8.   Classes, SysUtils, Forms, Controls, Graphics, Dialogs, StdCtrls, LazFileUtils;
9.  
10. type
11.  
12.   { TForm1 }
13.  
14.   TForm1 = class(TForm)
15.     Button1: TButton;
16.     Label1: TLabel;
17.     Label2: TLabel;
18.     procedure Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
19.   private
20.  
21.   public
22.  
23.   end;
24.  
25. var
26.   Form1: TForm1;
27.  
28. implementation
29.  
30. {$R *.lfm}
31.  
32. { TForm1 }
33.  
34. procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
35. Var
36.   F : Longint;
37.   FStr : string;
38. begin
39.  FStr := 'Permissions: ';
40.  Label1.Caption := 'File: ';
41.  Label2.Caption :=  FStr;
42.  with TOpenDialog.Create(Self) do
43.  begin
44.   if Execute then
45.        begin
46.           Filter := '*.*';
47.           Label1.Caption := 'File: ' + FileName;
48.           F := FileGetAttrUTF8(FileName);
49.           If F<>-1 then
50.           begin
51.               If (F and faReadOnly)<>0 then
52.                 FStr := FStr + '-ReadOnly-';
53.               If (F and faHidden)<>0 then
54.                  FStr := FStr + '-Hidden-';
55.               If (F and faSysFile)<>0 then
56.                 FStr := FStr + '-System File-';
57.               If (F and faVolumeID)<>0 then
58.                 FStr := FStr + '-disk label-';
59.               If (F and faArchive)<>0 then
60.                 FStr := FStr + '-archive-';
61.               If (F and faDirectory)<>0 then
62.                 FStr := FStr + '-directory-';
63.               Label2.Caption := FStr;
64.           end
65.           else
66.                Writeln ('Error reading attributes of ', Name);
67.        end;
68.   Free;
69.  end;
70. end;
71. end.        

     

The result is for every file the same: -Archive, even Archive (Secure flag) is not set!
The FileGetAttrUTF8 procedure does not seem to work on MacOS!

How to get and set the file attribute on MacOS?

Theo.

[Theo11]

Hi,

I have added the following to the code:

Code: Pascal  [Select][+][-]

1.      end;
2.   f := FileSetAttrUTF8(FileName, F and (not faArchive) and (not faReadOnly));
3.   Free;                                                                      

FileSetAttrUTF8 is working on a cross compiled version on Win64, but still not on MacOS.

Did some extra steps on MacOS, added program to allow make changes to the file system and installed Xcode 15.4 because I am on macOS Sonoma 14.7.2.

But still no luck on MacOS 

[Bart]

Does faArchive have a meaning on Unix?
AFAIK, it's a Windows thingy.

Bart

[TRon]

Does faArchive have a meaning on Unix?
AFAIK, it's a Windows thingy.

It is actually a filesystem thingy (which might end up as an OS thingy)

[PascalDragon]

How can I remove the faArchive flag?

You can't. It's hardcoded in the RTL, so best simply ignore it. It's probably there to improve compatibility with code coming from Delphi and thus the Windows world.

[Theo11]

Hi

I cannot ignore this flag on MacOS.
If it's set the files are readonly, see attachment.

Any other ideas to tackle this?

Theo.

[Theo11]

Hi,

Searched further on the internet.
It seems to be the Locked file attribute

In the terminal you can remove the lock:
- chflags nouchg file

Any API in free pascal or LCL ....?

If no API, then can I execute this from within my program:
- find . -flags uchg -exec chflags nouchg {} \;

Theo.

[PascalDragon]

I cannot ignore this flag on MacOS.

Yes, you can, because this flag is added to the flags received by FileGetAttr itself on the fly, it's not extracted from the file system, so whatever flag you're seeing in that property dialog is not what faArchive represents.

Also FileSetAttr is no-op on Unix systems and always returns -1 (aka failure).