renaming files in OS X

Wed Apr 20 16:06:11 EDT 2011

> In article <280CB56A-89B8-4D62-9374-D769B3ACFEBB at semanchuk.com>,
> Philip Semanchuk <philip at semanchuk.com> wrote:
> > On Apr 20, 2011, at 10:02 AM, <jyoung79 at kc.rr.com> <jyoung79 at kc.rr.com> 
> > wrote:
> > > I'm considering using os.rename or shutil for renaming 
> > > files on OS X (Snow Leopard)…

> os.rename() is a simple wrapper around the standard rename system call 
> (man 2 rename) so it has the same semantics. Extended attributes, 
> including resource forks, are preserved by rename(2). Note that the 
> system call only works for renames within one file system. The mv(1) 
> program handles cross-system renames by copying and unlinking and the 
> Apple-supplied version does copy extended attribute metadata in that 
> case. As documented, none of the shutil copy functions do that.

> > The OS X command xattr shows whether or not a file has extended attributes, 

> The 'ls -l' command does as well:

> $ ls -l a.jpg
> -rw-r--r--@ 1 nad staff 2425268 Apr 4 16:30 a.jpg
> $ ls -l@ a.jpg
> -rw-r--r--@ 1 nad staff 2425268 Apr 4 16:30 a.jpg
> com.apple.FinderInfo 32

Hi Ned,
Thanks so much for this detail! I didn't even realize there was a standard
rename system call - it's always nice learning something new about this
system.
Again, thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge. This is
exactly what I was looking for!
Jay