the macos file browser, Finder, lets you set a background for a folder, move file icons around to arbitrary positions, other shenanigans. in order for this to work across systems on removable storage media and network mounts, they have this.
In Unixy environments like Mac and Linux the application can’t always know what the mountpoint of a drive is so it’s not always obvious which root folder to put those index/config files in if it’s a portable drive or network drive. Some mountpoints are standard per each OS, but not everything sticks to the standard.
I am not familiar with MacOS, but that seems like a nightmare. What is the purpose of these files?
the macos file browser, Finder, lets you set a background for a folder, move file icons around to arbitrary positions, other shenanigans. in order for this to work across systems on removable storage media and network mounts, they have this.
Why not make the file when a change is made like with windows desktop.ini files?
I don’t think the code is available for people to figure out whether there’s a reason or if it’s completely arbitrary.
Iirc they’re indexes for the system wide search feature, Spotlight
Is there a valid reason not to store that [[anywhere else]], ideally in Spotlight’s data?
In Unixy environments like Mac and Linux the application can’t always know what the mountpoint of a drive is so it’s not always obvious which root folder to put those index/config files in if it’s a portable drive or network drive. Some mountpoints are standard per each OS, but not everything sticks to the standard.