Invisible Applications Folder inside App

mjsull51 · #1 June 27th, 2008, 06:10 AM

I noticed this after the 10.5.3 upgrade. Inside the applications folder there is an invisible file (no icon) labeled Applications Folder. Get Info reveals it to be a unix executable file. I'm a newbie, and not sure what it means. Thanks ahead of time for any help.

I have an iMac, 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2 GB RAM

MisterMe · #2 June 27th, 2008, 08:56 AM

This is completely normal. MacOS X applications are actually special directory (folder) structures called bundles. The actual executable is a UNIX executable file inside the application bundle.

mjsull51 · #3 June 27th, 2008, 09:28 AM

Many thanks! I was worried that something was wrong.

mjsull51 · #4 June 29th, 2008, 09:49 PM

My brother has an identical system, but has no such visible icon-less unix executable file in his applications folder. Weird.

MisterMe · #5 June 29th, 2008, 10:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mjsull51

My brother has an identical system, but has no such visible icon-less unix executable file in his applications folder. ...

Yes, it does. Otherwise, your brother's applications would not run. Control-click (Right-click) on any application:

Scroll down to Show Package Contents.
Open Contents.
Open MacOS. The Unix-executable is the executable code for the app.