Precize 1.

14 for High Sierra, Mojave, Catalina, Big Sur, Monterey & Ventura
Release Notes
Howard Oakley https://eclecticlight.co

These release notes describe the features of Precize, a simple GUI tool for obtaining
extensive information about any file, folder or bundle, including its true size, inode data, and
Bookmark information. It also lets you locate and preview any item using its Bookmark, and
inspect all the information contained within any Bookmark or Finder Alias.

macOS allows files to consist of two parts: the normal data fork, and an unlimited number of
extended attributes (xattrs), which contain metadata of various types. The xattrs are normally
(in HFS+ and APFS file systems) stored in the file system metadata rather than with the data
fork, but in some file systems such as ExFAT they are stored in hidden files.

When the Finder reports a file’s size, it only gives the size of its data fork. The same is also
true of the ls command in Terminal, unless you use its @ option to list xattrs. In most cases,
the total stored in xattrs is small, less than 1 Kbyte, but in extreme cases the total size of the
xattrs can be larger than that of the data fork.

Precize addresses the problem of obtaining a full measure of any file’s size, by providing the
size of its data fork, the total of its xattrs, and the sum of those. At first sight, it might appear
that macOS is capable of doing that itself, using a URLResourceKey claimed by Apple to
include “metadata”. Precize also provides the figures given in URLResourceKeys for
comparison. You will quickly discover that Apple’s “metadata” excludes almost all xattrs, so
is of little or no value.

I initially wrote Precize to look at this problem, and the figures available from macOS. In
addition to providing the only full measure of file sizes, it demonstrates that macOS doesn’t
appear to know the total size of any of its files. Even in Big Sur running on APFS.

Precize also provides information about files and folders which is not widely available except
in Terminal, in the attributes associated with the item’s inode. These include its permissions,
file type, listings of all its extended attributes, and the inode numbers for the file and the
volume on which it is located.

Precize helps you use three schemes for locating files independently of where they are on any
given volume: the inode number forming a volfs path, Bookmark information, and File
Reference URLs.

The volfs path can be used as an enduring reference to the item from the command line; for
example, you can enter
ls -la /.vol/16777224/360517297
and obtain a listing of the item referenced by that path, regardless of which folder you care to
move that item to, on any given volume.

Bookmarks are a replacement system for inode numbers and volfs. Until now, they have
only been accessible to compiled apps, but as support for inodes declines, they are to be
preferred. Precize provides Bookmarks in Base-64 encoding, which can be used with any
other tool which supports them. You can also copy a Bookmark into a Bookmark Resolver

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Release Notes
Howard Oakley https://eclecticlight.co

window and there use it to obtain the full path to that item, to locate it in the Finder and
preview it using QuickLook, and to inspect all the information which it contains. You can
now also open Finder Aliases to files and folders, and inspect all their internal data.

This works the same way as the Open Recent menu command does in apps, and can use the
Launch Services files which make that command work as a source of Bookmarks. Precize
lets you paste in Bookmarks copied from .sfl and .sfl2 files in ~/Library/Application Support/
com.apple.sharedfilelist, and locate and preview the items. It is the only such utility to do so.

The third system is what Apple refers to as File Reference URLs. These use the inode number
set with a different volume reference in URL format, such as
file:///.file/id=6571367.360517297
but cannot be used directly in Terminal, as far as I know.

What you need

• A Mac running High Sierra or later. This release has been built as a Universal App, and
runs native on both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs.
• A copy of the latest release of Precize from https://eclecticlight.co/downloads/
(This is delivered by secure HTTPS download.)

Getting started

Precize comes compressed as a Zip file, which you should decompress, and move to your
preferred folder, such as /Applications. It is not fussy where it is run from, though.

Precize is notarized for macOS Mojave and later.

Working with Mojave and later privacy protection

Precize is designed so that it will examine any item for which you have permissions.
However, Mojave and later add restrictions to preserve the privacy of your personal data. If
you want to use Precize to examine any file or folder, including those in what Mojaveand
later consider to be protected data, then you must add the app to the list of apps with Full
Disk Access in the Privacy tab of your Security & Privacy pane.

If you don’t do that, but try to access protected data, then you should be prompted to give
consent to Precize to do so; if you agree, it will then be added to the appropriate list of apps
in the Privacy settings.

If Precize crashes when you try to access any protected items, this is most probably because
you need to add it to the Full Disk Access list.

If you’re unsure what access it can have, its new Privacy settings command in the Help
menu displays a window which explains succinctly:

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Release Notes
Howard Oakley https://eclecticlight.co

Use

Precize lets you open any regular file or bundle and view extensive information about that
item, including six different measures of that file’s size, each given in bytes, as well as all
available inode data, volfs path, and Bookmark in Base-64 encoding. To open a plain
folder, drag and drop that onto the app icon in the Finder or Dock; you can’t currently open a
folder using the Open… command (this avoids ambiguity in the Open dialog).

To resolve a Bookmark or Alias, open a Bookmark Resolver window using the Open
Resolver command in the Window menu, paste a Bookmark into the upper text view and
click on its Resolve button to see the full path to that item, its volfs path, and a full listing
of the Bookmark’s contents in the lowest scrolling text view. Click on the Reveal in Finder
button to find a resolved Bookmark in a Finder window, or its Preview button to preview the
document using QuickLook.

You can also open any Finder Alias, whether it points to a file or folder, by clicking on the
Open file as Base-64 button; once read in using Base-64 encoding, its contents will be
shown in the lowest scrolling text view, and you can click on Resolve to see it resolved into
paths.
Document window

When you open Precize, it doesn’t open a new window, but waits for you to open a document
using the Open… menu command. Alternatively, you can drag and drop one or more
documents or folders onto the app icon in a Finder window or the Dock. If you want to
examine a folder, drag and drop that onto the app icon in the Finder or Dock.

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Release Notes
Howard Oakley https://eclecticlight.co

When you open an item, Precize fills a deep window with information about that item. We’ll
step through it from the top.

At the top is the full path to the item, and below that are the two other methods of giving its
path, using the volfs system, and as a FileReferenceURL. The volfs path to the file uses its
inode data to provide a reference to the file which is more enduring than its normal path and
name. Simply copy that to Terminal if you want to use it in a command there. To help you
copy these items quickly, each has its own menu command and keystroke shortcut, with a
reminder of that shortcut next to the title of the item. So to copy the volfs path, simply press
⌘-2.

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Release Notes
Howard Oakley https://eclecticlight.co

Precize calculates seven different measures of its file size, according to two different
methods.

The sizes given in the row labelled URL Keys are calculated using two URLResourceKeys, giving
the basic size (Data only), and the total size (Total, which “includes metadata”). From those, the size
of the metadata is calculated.

The sizes given in the row labelled File system are calculated using File Manager FileAttributeKeys
(for Data), and the getxattr function (for Metadata), then they are added to return the total size of
the selected file.

The two measures in the Data column should be identical, and correspond with that reported in the
Finder, the ls command in Terminal, and everything else in MacOS. However, they ignore xattrs
completely.

The two measures in the Metadata column should also be identical, and should match the total of
individual metadata for that file. In practice, they usually don’t.

The two measures in the Total column should also match, but if the file has xattrs, they usually don’t,
with that from URL Keys normally being less than that from the File system.

The size given for Disk is the disk space currently allocated to the file’s data. In normal
circumstances, this will be slightly larger than the Data size, rounded up to the next whole storage
block. However, it will be far smaller in the event that the file is being stored as an APFS Sparse File.

When you need to know the accurate and complete total file size, for example as will be used
on a USB memory stick formatted using ExFAT, the most accurate value is that at the bottom
right, for the Total given by the File system.

In the boxes below those, Precize lists each value of the inode data for that file, giving first
the Posix permissions in octal (base 8), then the name and ID number of the owner and
group. Those are followed by the date and time of creation and last modification of the file,
given in UTC. The next boxes give the file type, using macOS terminology and as a UTI, and
the reference count, which is the number of file system references to that item.

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Release Notes
Howard Oakley https://eclecticlight.co

When Precize is run in macOS Big Sur or later, three additional checkboxes are visible.
These provide information about whether the file is a sparse file, has ever been cloned (or is a
clone), and is purgeable. When the Sparse box is ticked, the file is a sparse file, and you may
see that the space occupied on Disk is significantly less than the Data size. When the Clone
box is ticked, the file has at some time shared data with another file, either because it has
been cloned, or it is a clone. Data may no longer be shared, though: this doesn’t give any
indication of whether this file still shares data with any other. Note that, unless the item is
also hard-linked, the Ref count will be 1. When the Purge box is ticked, the file is purgeable.

The lowest boxes provide a Base-64-encoded representation of a macOS Bookmark to the

file, which is intended for use with the Bookmark Resolver window, and other apps which
might accept such Bookmark data. Using the quick copy shortcut, press ⌘-5 and the whole
of the Bookmark will be copied ready for you to paste.

That is followed by the conventional path contained in the Bookmark, which should be the
same as the path seen in the Finder and given at the top of the window. The final box lists the
extended attributes (xattrs) found for the file. If you want to work with those, you should
use my specialist tool xattred. To change the size of the text in this last view between 4 and
24 points, use the ⌘+ keys to increase it, and the ⌘– keys to reduce it.

The Save command in the File menu lets you write all the information contained in the
scrolling text box to the text file of your choice.

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Release Notes
Howard Oakley https://eclecticlight.co

Quick Copy

Several of the results shown in the main document window are most useful when you can
copy them, and paste them into another app such as a command in Terminal. To make this
simple and efficient, Precize gives direct access to copies of six of the text boxes, through
menu commands and their keystroke shortcuts. These are listed in the Copy… command in
the Edit menu, and cues to their shortcuts are shown in the window.

For example, if you want to copy the volfs path to use in Terminal’s command line, you can
use the Edit > Copy… > volfs path command, or even better just press ⌘-2. You don’t need
to select any text, as Precize will copy the text content of the volfs path text box
automatically, ready for you to paste.

To help you remember which text boxes have quick copy support, and their keystroke
shortcuts, they are marked in the window titles using the shortcut number in a circle, e.g. ➁
for the volfs path.

How the sizes are obtained

The values listed in URL Keys are obtained using the following Swift 4.0 code:
let theRes = try url.resourceValues(forKeys: [.fileSizeKey, .totalFileSizeKey])
if let theAll = theRes.totalFileSize {
uTotalSize = theAll
}
if let theData = theRes.fileSize {
uDataSize = theData
}

The value listed in File system for Data is obtained using the following Swift 4.0 code:
let fAttributes = try FileManager.default.attributesOfItem(atPath: url.path)
fmDataSize = fAttributes[FileAttributeKey.size] as! Int

The value listed in File system for Metadata is obtained using the following Swift 4.0 code:
let length = getxattr(fileSystemPath, item, nil, 0, 0, 0)
for each of the xattrs of that file, totalling those values.

The value listed in URL Keys for Metadata is obtained by subtracting the Data value from
that of the Total. The value listed in File system for Total is obtained by adding the Data and
Metadata values.

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Release Notes
Howard Oakley https://eclecticlight.co

Because the URL and FileManager calls for the parent folder of a bundle only return values
for that enclosing folder, and not its contents, those are the values displayed by Precize. Thus,
it does not show the total size of an RTFD bundle, only that of the bundle folder itself.

Data shown in the other boxes are obtained by listing the whole dictionary returned in the
fAttributes value above.

Bookmark and Alias Resolver window

A Bookmark is of no use if you can’t use it to locate the file/folder which it references. Open
a Bookmark Resolver window, paste any Base-64-encoded Bookmark into the upper text
view, then click on the Resolve button. If Precize can resolve the Bookmark data, the lower
text box will then display its regular and volfs paths, which you can copy to Terminal or
elsewhere. To locate that item, click on the Reveal in Finder button after resolving the
Bookmark, and to preview the document using QuickLook, click on the Preview button.

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Release Notes
Howard Oakley https://eclecticlight.co

Bookmarks which are saved in .sfl and .sfl2 files in ~/Library/Application Support/
com.apple.sharedfilelist pad the Base-64 data with superfluous spaces, newlines, and tabs.
Precize strips those characters from the text pasted in before trying to use it as a Bookmark. It
replaces the text that you pasted into the box with the cleaned-up text, so that you can save
that as a more concise Bookmark if you wish.

The Reveal in Finder button runs an AppleScript to do its work. If you have disabled
AppleScript for any reason, that is not likely to work. The Preview button has one
unexpected side-effect: because of a bug (I think in QuickLook support libraries), it also
selects all the text in the lower text window. This is a workaround which I had to introduce,
or QuickLook proved unable to find the document.

To inspect a Finder Alias (or a Bookmark file created by alisma) to a file or folder, click on
the Open file as Base-64 button. This drops down an Open File sheet. Select the Alias there
and click on the Open button. The Alias will be read in, its contents converted into
Bookmark format and displayed in the upper text view encoded in Base-64. They will
automatically be analysed to show the internal information in the lowest text view. If you
want to see the Alias formally resolved, click on the Resolve button.

Resolving Aliases can update their internal information, for example changing paths if the
item to which the Alias points has been moved and can still be located. By default, the
Refresh data checkbox is not ticked, and resolving an Alias will not then update its internal
data. If you want that data to be updated, tick that box and the next time that you click on the
Resolve button, that action will result in the data being updated in the Alias itself.

When you click on the Analyse or Resolve button, the lowest (scrolling) text view displays
all the information available in that Bookmark. Even if a Bookmark can’t be resolved, for

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Release Notes
Howard Oakley https://eclecticlight.co

example if its path and other details no longer exist, this information will still be shown and
provides valuable historical information about the original file or folder. Note that the internal
information is extracted before resolution is performed. As resolution may cause the internal
data in Finder Aliases such as paths to be updated (if they have changed), what you see in the
lowest text view reflects the state of the Alias at the time that it was first opened, not that
after the resolution performed by Precize.

Two separate listings of information are provided. The first is in a structured format, and the
second shows how that data is stored within the Bookmark. You can copy and paste this into
other apps as you wish. The first section of the listing includes the results of the
NSURLBookmarkAllPropertiesKey, and the second those from
NSURLBookmarkDetailedDescription.

The Refresh data checkbox sets the bookmarkDataIsStale parameter passed when resolving
the Bookmark using URL.init(resolvingBookmarkData:bookmarkDataIsStale:).

Change the text size in this view between 4 and 24 points using ⌘+ to enlarge it, and ⌘– to
reduce it.

How to inspect an Alias without updating its contents

A surprising number of actions, including obtaining a QuickLook thumbnail, can result in

resolution of an Alias and update the information contained within it. There are circumstances
in which you won’t want that to happen, so that the information is left as it was originally.
Here is a suggested sequence of actions which should achieve that.

1. Open the Resolver window.

2. Click on the Open file as Base-64 button.
3. Switch the Open File dialog to display items in List format rather than in Columns.
This works around QuickLook’s thumbnail display.
4. Select the Alias which you want to examine.
5. Click on the Open button.

The information displayed in the lowest scrolling text view the reflects that at that moment. If
you then tick the Refresh data box and click on Resolve, then Analyse, you may see the
paths and other information updated.

Checking for updates

Whenever you open Precize, it may check to see if an update to the app is available. This
doesn’t use the popular Sparkle mechanism for updating in place, but works as detailed here.

Once the app has successfully completed its integrity check, it looks at whether update
checking has been turned off in its preferences file. If that has, it abandons any attempt to
check for updates. If checking is allowed, it then checks when it last checked for updates. If

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Release Notes
Howard Oakley https://eclecticlight.co

that was more than 12 hours ago, it continues to perform the check. It then connects to my
GitHub server, from where it downloads a list of current versions of my apps. It doesn’t
upload any data to the GitHub server at all, and no statistics beyond GitHub normal
connection figures are collected either: no personal identifiers are recorded.

If there is an update available, Precize then checks that its location is on my WordPress blog,
and posts a dialog which invites you to download the update.

If you click on the Download button, it then points your default browser at that update,
which should trigger the update to be downloaded to your normal downloads folder. The
update is received as a regular Zip archive, and is exactly the same as you would download
from the Downloads page here. It also carries a quarantine flag, so that when you unZip it
and install the app inside, it undergoes normal first run ‘Gatekeeper’ security checks. If you
click on the Ignore button, Precize won’t remind you about it again for another 12 hours.

An additional item at the end of the Help menu explains the update status. If no update check
is performed, or the check fails, the last item reads Update not checked. If the check is
performed and update information is obtained, even when no update is available or you
decline to download it, that menu item reads Checked for update and is ticked (but still
disabled).

You can customise this behaviour by changing Precize’s preferences. The keys to use are:
• noUpdateCheck, a Boolean. When set to true, this disables all update checking.
Default is false.
• updateCheckInt, a real number (Double). When set to a value greater than 1.0, the
minimum time interval between checks, in seconds. Default is 43200, which is 12
hours. If you set it to any value less than 1, Precize will reset it automatically to that
default.

To change either of these, use a Terminal command of the form

defaults write co.eclecticlight.Precize updateCheckInt '10'
which works properly through the preferences server cfprefsd..

Limitation

Precize is also intended to be offered as a Finder Service, enabling you to select file(s) in the
Finder and use its contextual menu to open them in Precize. Although it currently offers itself
as a Service, the current version doesn’t yet open any files when used as a Service. If you find

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Release Notes
Howard Oakley https://eclecticlight.co

this annoying, you can disable Precize from Services in the normal way, through the
Keyboard pane.

Acknowledgements

Code to generate the FileReferenceURL is adapted from an NSURL extension for Swift 3
written by Frédéric Blondiau. I am very grateful to Michael Lynn for providing the
information which enables full data from Bookmarks to be shown when they are resolved.

Change list
Precize 1.14:
• replaced xattr deprecations.
Precize 1.13:
• added Purgeable checkbox for Big Sur and later.
Precize 1.12:
• added Sparse and Clone? checkboxes for Big Sur.
Precize 1.11:
• added Disk size, particularly for use with sparse files.
Precize 1.10:
• minor tweaks for Big Sur
• Universal App.
Precize 1.9:
• added auto-update feature
• added changing text size in two text views
• improved memory of window sizes and positions.
Precize 1.8:
• added code integrity check when opening the app
• added product support page link to Help menu
• improved functionality of text views.
Precize 1.7:
• added option to set whether to refresh data when resolving Aliases
• split analyse and resolve into separate actions in Resolver
• added analyse to occur automatically whenever opening an Alias
• improved information format in lowest text view of Resolver window
• added and updated Tooltips for Resolver window
• updated Help book.
Precize 1.6:
• added feature to open, analyse and resolve Finder Aliases.
Precize 1.5:
• added full Bookmark info to Resolver
• Built in Xcode 10.1.
Precize 1.4:
• notarized for Mojave, to give you assurance that it is safe to run
• ported to Swift 4.2, built in Xcode 10ß6

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• added privacy usage strings to Info.plist

• added Privacy settings window to Help.
Precize 1.3:
• added UTI to Type textbox, and expanded the box.
Precize 1.2:
• added Browse updates command to Help menu
• built using Xcode 10ß2
• fixed potential data access conflict in xattrs
• fixed Dark Mode.
Precize 1.1:
• added Copy… menu and submenu items
• added copying of six items from document window
• adjusted labels to indicate copied items
• fixed Save command so that it is enabled and works
• updated Help book.
Precize 1.0:
• adjusted document window size and resizing
• added Tooltips
• added Help book.
Precize 1.0b6:
• rolled Preciziun into Precize as Bookmark Resolver
• fixed crashing bug in Bookmark Resolver
• redesigned interface into separate items in window
• rewrote save function completely.
Precize 1.0b5:
• added FileReferenceURL output.
Preciziun 1.0b2:
• added Quick Look preview feature.
Preciziun 1.0b1:
• initial release.
Precize 1.0b4:
• converted permissions value to octal
• replaced hex and text of Bookmark with Base-64 version, for use with Preciziun.
Precize 1.0b3:
• added volfs path and Bookmark data
• added Save command for text from scrolling view.
Precize 1.0b2:
• added inode data
• added document type to support bundles.
Precize 1.0b1:
• initial release, without function as a Service.

17 May 2023.

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