10.5.6 is here

[ElDiabloConCaca]

I neither repair before nor after.

Since 10.5.6 (and all other updates specific to Mac OS X) require administrator privileges to run, unless a permission somehow got changed to "no access," it would be nearly impossible for the updater to fail due to an incorrect permission, or for the updater to change a permission such that your system would be rendered unusable.

Repairing permissions is one of those "voodoo" fixes that people use as a basic troubleshooting step, i.e., "Repair permissions and repair the disk before exclaiming that you have a problem," much like rebuilding the desktop was a "voodoo" fix in the OS 6/7/8/9 days to "fix" a number of problems. Repairing permissions may fix an application failing to launch, but rarely has repairing permissions solved a real problem.

Permissions don't change by themselves, and disk errors don't cause permissions to change. Kernel panics don't change permissions. Hard powering down the computer doesn't change permissions. The only time permissions will change is by you intentionally changing them, or by a flawed installer changing permissions incorrectly (as some 3rd party installers in the past have done, but next to none do now).

[Doctor X]

As you know, there is a lot of "Voodoo" amongst computer users. I first read HERE--not naming names--to "repair permissions" after an update. "Must be true! A Guru wrote it!"

--J.D.

[ElDiabloConCaca]

I know, I hear it everywhere (especially from that bastardization of a website, MacFixIt, which used to be reputable and accurate, but now is full of fluff, rumor, and just plain wrongness ever since c|net took over).

Hey, it doesn't hurt to run it before and after. It doesn't hurt to repair permissions every time you install a piece of software. It doesn't hurt to repair permissions 75 times a day, either, or, for that matter, every 1.5 minutes of computer use. Will it do anything to a smooth-running system? Doubtful.

Repairing permissions will do absolutely squat to "speed up" your system, which is what a lot of people prescribe it for. An incorrect permission won't slow your system down -- whatever relies on the permission will either work (in the case of a correct permission), or it might not work (in the case where the permission is incorrect)... it's impossible for an incorrect permission to cause something to work slower.

I think the people who prescribe repairing permissions as a "voodoo" or "cure all" have a basic misunderstanding or lack of knowledge of what a UNIX permission actually is, and what it can and can't affect. They don't know what it does; they just know that sometimes, in certain situations, it can "fix" things.

I'm not saying it's a bad thing to repair permissions, or even a bad thing to do it at the sign of a problem. It would just behoove users to know what the heck a UNIX-style permission is, and what they do.

[Doctor X]

Considering it takes now about 30 minutes to do that on OS 10.5, I doubt it!

Writing of rumors I have followed a thread on defragging a HD under OS X . . . though I have to admit the details of the argument are above my understanding. There has been no easy answer to "should I or should I not?" question.

Probably to that and to the Permissions question is: are you having a problem?

If not, what are you fixing?

--J.D.

[ElDiabloConCaca]

Yep, "defragging" a hard drive -- another case of the "voodoo" fix.

"I defragged my OS X hard drive and now there's a noticeable speedup of EVERYthing!"

Yeah, right. That's called a "perceived" speed up. You're expecting a speed up; you want a speed up; you're perceiving a speed up. There is no speed up.

While defragging is good in some situations (multiple partitions, heavy audio/video editing with a lot of large disk writes and reads, etc.), for the normal OS X user that has one partition, it's never needed. OS X does its own defragmentation, and by defragging manually, you're basically setting OS X back a step or two. OS X is all, like, "Hey, I just moved those fragments of files over here so I can access them more quickly, and now you're moving them back over there. Why you workin' against me, bud?"

I think a lot of proponents of defragging the system drive or that have perceived speed increases after defragging are Windows converts, where defragging is actually recommended by Microsoft.

[Doctor X]

Originally Posted by ElDiabloConCaca

Yeah, right. That's called a "perceived" speed up. You're expecting a speed up; you want a speed up; you're perceiving a speed up. There is no speed up.

Placebo effect for computers. Yup! Been there! Not to hijack a thread on 10.5.6, but your description is the "gist" of the anti- to defragmentation. One "pro"--who works for a company that has a defragmentation program!--had an explanation that there are certain small files that can get broken across blocks if you do not have enough room on your hard drive that can cause problems with OS X . . . I think! Of course, that is near what you describe where you have basically a near full HD so OS X cannot put things where it needs to put them.


. . . I think. . . .

--J.D.

[Satcomer]

Originally Posted by ElDiabloConCaca

I know, I hear it everywhere (especially from that bastardization of a website, MacFixIt, which used to be reputable and accurate, but now is full of fluff, rumor, and just plain wrongness ever since c|net took over).

I could not agree more! To me C|Net even got worse once CBS took them over.

[Mikuro]

Originally Posted by ElDiabloConCaca

While defragging is good in some situations (multiple partitions, heavy audio/video editing with a lot of large disk writes and reads, etc.), for the normal OS X user that has one partition, it's never needed.

Defragmenting can help immensely when virtual memory is used. This happens most on systems with bare-minimum RAM.

I'm an on-again, off-again proponent of defragmenting. I acknowledge that for most users these days it is much more trouble than it's worth, but it's not flat-out useless like many people insist. I've seen bad fragmentation on my own systems, to the point where I couldn't even play movies at full speed because the disk slowed it down so much.

It's absolutely not something to do as regular maintenance like on Windows, though. It's usually easy to tell when disk access is a bottleneck.

As for repairing permissions, I agree that it's not worth bothering on the effectiveness scale, but on the "how much of a jackass will I feel like if that's the solution and I didn't do it?" scale, it's off the charts. I think of repairing permissions as at worst a fine thing to do while you think of something better to do.