The Desktop Database
For quick access to the resources it needs, the Finder maintains a central desktop database of information about the files and directories on a volume.
The Finder updates the database when applications are added, moved, renamed, or deleted.
Normally, your application will not need to use the information in the desktop
database or to use Desktop Manager routines to manipulate it. Instead, your application should let the Finder manipulate the desktop database and handle double-click icons, maintaining user comments associated with files, and
managing the icons used by applications.
Although there may be instances where you would like to gain access to the
change, add to, or remove any of this information.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Manipulating the desktop database is likely to wreak
havoc on your users' systems.
In case you should discover some important need to retrieve information from
the desktop database or even to change the desktop database from within your
application probably will not ever need to use them however.
Much of the information in the desktop database comes from the
bundle resources for applications and other files on the volume. (See the
setting the bundle bit of an application so that its bundled resources get stored
in the desktop database.) The desktop database contains all icon definitions and
their associated file types. It lists all the file types that each application can
open and all copies or versions of the application that's listed as the creator of
a file. The desktop database also lists the location of each application on the disk
and any comments that the user has added to the information windows for
lets your application retrieve this information from the desktop database.
The Finder maintains a desktop database for each volume with a capacity greater than 2 MB. For most volumes, such as hard disks, the database is
stored on the volume itself. For read-only volumes-such as some compact
Note: If you distribute read-only media, it is generally a good idea to
store on each volume both a desktop database (for users running System
7.0) and a Desktop file (for users running older versions of system
software). Create a desktop database on your master volume by pressing
Command-Option when booting your system with System 7.0. Then create a
Desktop file by pressing Command-Option and restarting your system with
version 6.0.
For compatibility with older versions of system software, the Finder keeps the information for ejectable volumes with a capacity smaller than 2 MB in a
resource file instead of a database.
the desktop database, your application should not ordinarily change anything in
the database. You can read the database to retrieve information, such as the
icons defined by other applications.
Note: The desktop database does not store customized icons (that is, those