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Old 12-01-2005, 08:39 AM   #1
Welles Goodrich
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Question Proliferation of strangely named, empty preference files

Ever since OS X, I've noticed that there is a continued creation of strangely named folders in the User Preferences which are empty folders. Currently some of the ones in my Prefs are, ¶iH, ¶IL, •™, •YL, ¢…L, ¢?, £*, ª™D, Ÿ¯, ?ŸH, and so forth. Periodically, I go through my prefs folder and just eliminate them but there are always more.

I've never looked at the end of each activity to see if a new one has been created so I don't really know the cause/effect of their creation. I wonder if someone knows just what these files are? My best guess is that they were temporary files which were eliminated after the completion of some task, say using TWAIN acquire in Photoshop.

Does anyone really know?

Thanks!
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Old 12-01-2005, 09:13 AM   #2
Oops
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I don't know the answer to your question, but I'm writing to suggest that you attach Apple's stock folder action "add - new item alert.scpt" to your home Preferences folder and then watch to see what application or action precipitates a new one of those folders.
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Old 12-01-2005, 09:47 AM   #3
Welles Goodrich
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Oops,

Your idea is great. Unfortunately, although I'm a whiz at Photoshop and adequate at a number of graphics apps, I'm a dunce when it comes to AppleScripting. I found the script you suggest but how do I attach it to my Prefs folder? (I'm sure it's simple but I've just reached my dunce factor.)
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Old 12-01-2005, 10:16 AM   #4
hayne
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It is probably some rogue application (or a normal application behaving badly) that is creating these files.

Perhaps you could get more clues about what is causing it by using the following Perl script.

You use it by supplying the name of a folder as a command-line argument.
E.g.:
watchdir ~/Library/Preferences

The script will look every 10 seconds at what files are in that folder and report when a file is added or removed from that folder.

For the basics of running scripts, see this Unix FAQ

Code:
#!/usr/bin/perl

# watchdir:
# This script prints info about changes to the directory specified
# as a command-line argument. If no command-line arg is supplied,
# it watches the current directory.
# Cameron Hayne (macdev@hayne.net)  December 2005

use strict;
use warnings;

# global variables
my $interval = 10;    # time (in seconds) between checks

# If no command-line argument, use the current directory
my $dirname = scalar(@ARGV) >= 1 ? $ARGV[0]: ".";
die "$dirname is not a directory\n" unless -d $dirname;

sub get_dir_entries($)
{
    my ($dirname) = @_;

    my %entries = ();
    opendir(DIR, $dirname) or die "can't opendir $dirname: $!\n";
    while (defined(my $filename = readdir(DIR)))
    {
        next if $filename =~ /^\.\.?$/;     # skip . and ..
        $entries{$filename} = 1;
    }
    closedir(DIR);

    return \%entries;
}

sub diff_hash_keys($$)
{
    my ($ref_hashA, $ref_hashB) = @_;

    my %hashA = %$ref_hashA;
    my %hashB = %$ref_hashB;
    my @A_not_B = ();
    my @B_not_A = ();

    foreach (keys %hashA)
    {
        push(@A_not_B, $_) unless exists $hashB{$_};
    }
    foreach (keys %hashB)
    {
        push(@B_not_A, $_) unless exists $hashA{$_};
    }

    return (\@A_not_B, \@B_not_A);
}

MAIN
{
    $| = 1; # enable autoflushing of output so this works better when piped
    my $prev = undef;
    while (1)
    {
        my $date = localtime();
        my $curr = get_dir_entries($dirname);
        if (defined($prev))
        {
            my ($added, $removed) = diff_hash_keys($curr, $prev);
            foreach (sort @$added)
            {
                print "$date: Added file $_\n";
            }
            foreach (sort @$removed)
            {
                print "$date: Removed file $_\n";
            }
        }
        $prev = $curr;

        sleep $interval;
    }
}
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Old 12-01-2005, 01:26 PM   #5
voldenuit
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You should also make sure your filesystem is in good shape, use something like applejack.sf.net to make sure that's not the problem.

It could be perfectly legit files that some app tries to create which end up having strange names due to a corrupt filesystem.
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Old 12-01-2005, 01:44 PM   #6
bramley
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Hmmm!

I installed the trial version of Photoshop CS2 on the 12th June 2005, and have just noticed folders similar to the above lurking in my preferences folder dated 12th June 2005. The Adobe preferences have the same date.

So - looking like it's Photoshop ...... something.
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Old 12-01-2005, 08:45 PM   #7
Oops
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Welles Goodrich
Oops,

I found the script you suggest but how do I attach it to my Prefs folder?

I defer to hayne as always, but if you don't get his script going, here is how to attach that Folder Action. Select the (~/Library/Preferences) folder and Control-Click to bring up the contextual menu. Select "Enable Folder Actions" from this list. Now Control-Click ~/Library/Preferences again and this time select "Attach a Folder Action" from the contextual menu. It will then bring up a Open/Save dialog from which you navigate to /Library/Scripts/Folder\ Action\ Scripts/add - new item alert.scpt

That should do it.

As a new OS X user 3 years ago, I used to set that everytime I installed and opened a new application, just to see what it installed in the Preferences folder, and what it was called. It worked well. I don't do that anymore.
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Old 12-01-2005, 09:02 PM   #8
hayne
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Oops
I defer to hayne as always

Actually I thought your idea of using a folder action was better - but I'd been away writing that script so I didn't notice your post until later.
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Old 12-02-2005, 01:41 AM   #9
Welles Goodrich
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Thank you both, Oops and hayne! I particularly like the simplicity of the contextual menu use of folder actions. I'm a contextual menu user but that was one my eyes have glazed over for years!

When I get an idea of just what is going on, I'll post back.

Again, thanks alot.
Welles
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Old 12-03-2005, 09:22 AM   #10
Welles Goodrich
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Early returns indicate that Photoshop CS2 at startup is a culprit in creating useless empty folders in the User > Library > Preferences. Yesterday I tried launching a bunch of apps and the only other malfactor I found was Internet Explorer (which I never use anymore but still have in my browser collection). I'm going to keep an eye on the issue for a month or so.

Further experimentation seems to indicate it isn't Photoshop but rather the Epson TWAIN plugin which causes the creation of odd prefs folders.

Last edited by Welles Goodrich; 12-03-2005 at 11:01 AM.
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Old 07-29-2006, 05:24 PM   #11
halberstadt
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Any solutions yet?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Welles Goodrich
Early returns indicate that Photoshop CS2 at startup is a culprit in creating useless empty folders in the User > Library > Preferences. Yesterday I tried launching a bunch of apps and the only other malfactor I found was Internet Explorer (which I never use anymore but still have in my browser collection). I'm going to keep an eye on the issue for a month or so.

Further experimentation seems to indicate it isn't Photoshop but rather the Epson TWAIN plugin which causes the creation of odd prefs folders.

I see that the last comment here was last year, but I wonder if anyone has come up with a solution. Welles (above) correctly pinpointed the source as the Epson TWAIN driver. It is in the /Library/Image Capture/TWAIN Data Sources folder. This driver file is "EPSON Perfection 1650.ds", version 2.65. I cannot find a reference to a later version.

It creates one of the useless folders on every launch of PhotoShop, apparently as the PhotoShop plugin "TWAIN.plugin" interacts with it.

About once a month, I go to my preferences folder and delete all the extraneous oddly named empty folders that this driver has created. There must be a better way.

Bill Halberstadt
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Old 07-31-2006, 08:38 AM   #12
Welles Goodrich
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Hi Halberstadt,

Adobe is aware of the issue. I think they view it as a TWAIN issue. Although I haven't been scanning much, I don't think the proliferation of odd pref files was addressed in the PS9.0.1 update.
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