# Is /users/Shared necessary?



## chenly (May 18, 2002)

Can I safely delete /users/Shared? Do any system resources or programs assume that it exists? What is its purpose? And, lastly, where are we going, and why am I in this handbasket?


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## nkuvu (May 19, 2002)

What I usually do is rename it to something else.  Run the system for a while (a day, a week, a month, whatever) and see if anything it broken.  If nothing seems broken after that time, nuke it.


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## scruffy (May 19, 2002)

The only thing I've found that uses /Users/Shared is the tetris game MacBlox - it keeps its high scores in there, so that there is one high scores file for the whole computer.

Of course, it's good for things that you really do want everyone to have access to.  If you're going to have bajillions of mp3 files on your system for example, letting everyone at them makes sense - avoids duplication and whatnot...

Oh, one thing to add to what nkuvu said: during the time it's renamed, run through a number of situations - reboot, sleep/wake up, leave the computer running for a long stretch (perhaps a week or more).


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## chenly (May 19, 2002)

OK--if /users/Shared is where you can put one copy of something for all users to use (the high scores, for example), other programs will be looking for it, too.  I can live with it; it's just annoying. Thanks, guys!


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## Gwailo (May 19, 2002)

My opinion: Why would you want to delete it, does it bother you that much? I noticed it too but it can be useful. Not to mention other applications use it. For example, my Wacom Graphire2 tablet's configurations are stored there.

Secondly, nkuvu, when you rename something in HFS+ doesn't it just update the BTree to reflect the new name? Therefore, renaming it won't do the same thing as actually deleting it, since it will recognize that folder as the /Shared folder with the new name? I'm not sure about how Darwin would handle it though, especially being part of the system--just a thought!


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## jim knopf (May 24, 2002)

well, when i last looked into mine, there was a folder of aim and a folder of wacom (the graphire tablet) ...

and if you look into the info dialog, you might notice that it is owned by user "system" of group "wheel" (or something other on your computer). generally speaking i wouldn't recommend you to delete anything that is owned by "system" ...

if you want to share files with others, it is probably best to put them into the folder "public" or "site" and turn file- or websharing on.

so maybe best to ignore the shared-folder - if it doesn't hurt, it may as well be


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## hazmat (May 27, 2002)

I do have some AIM stuff in /Users/Shared, but what is ~/Shared for?  What I would guess it's for, I would think ~/Public is as well.


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## jim knopf (May 27, 2002)

ok, the ~ equals your home directory, so i assume that you are speaking of this.

well, in that case i would guess that you or one of the programms you have been running has created this directory. i have never seen a ~/shared on this level. who owns this folder and when was it created? the same as ~/public?


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## hazmat (May 27, 2002)

> _Originally posted by jim knopf _
> *ok, the ~ equals your home directory, so i assume that you are speaking of this.
> 
> well, in that case i would guess that you or one of the programms you have been running has created this directory. i have never seen a ~/shared on this level. who owns this folder and when was it created? the same as ~/public? *



Both have the same owner (me), group, and permissions, and even the same date and time.  ~/Shared is empty.


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## jim knopf (May 27, 2002)

well, yes ... beats me, to be honest! the official help files mention only one folder "shared", and that is users/shared as a means for making something available to others (besides the well known folder ~public, of course).

what mac os-version do you use? 10.1.4 as me? did you a clean install or did you update from an older version, maybe even a beta?


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## hazmat (May 27, 2002)

I am running 10.1.4, and OS X was installed by Apple.  It is the install that the computer came with.  Maybe some crappy software created that, like Limewire seems  to like to do.  I'll try deleting it and see if it comes back.


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## jim knopf (May 27, 2002)

best to me as well. very funny thing.

but indeed, all folders created in your home directory have initially the same rights as the public folder. which can be something you don't really want ...

good luck anyway


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