CDF type to Unix Executable File

When downloading a Comma Delimited File Database, Safari saves the download as a "Unix Executable File" and my database (Filemaker) will not recognize the file type. What is the problem (or solution)? Thanks in advance

There is no extension. What appears is the file name with an unusual (for Mac) icon. This was not the solution, but thank you. I have subsequently tried the download on two other machines with the same result. The question remains why does Safari (or Mac OSX) change a comma delimited file to an Unix executable file. I did discover that by opening the file in textedit and saving it, Filemaker will then work the file. That is only a workaround, not a solution.

Similar Messages

File type changed to Unix Executable File

Hello:
I restored a corrupt Word file from a back-up drive (files are backed up using a special rsync that splits data and metadata forks. I did not assemble the two forks before copying the file back to the production volume) into a production folder in a local machine. Now when I browse the volume from my networked computer all Word files without extensions show up as Unix Executable Files. I've cleared the Launch services in the networked machine with no results. If I browse from other networked computers file types are set correctly. The problem seems to be with this specific networked machine. What an I do to restore file types as they should be? Please, note the problem seems to be with the client machine not the file server.

Thanks, Kappy. I've tried that but I get an error message saying "An error ocurred while changing...because not enough information is available." Could that mean that the action cannot be done because these files don't have extensions? When I go ahead and select to use Word to always open the file it only takes effect on that file. But the file remains a Unix Executable file.
Could anyone provide any further help with this issue?
Message was edited by: Karkula

Unix Executable files - need help to open

Hi folks, sorry i have been looking through previous discussions re these type of files but its all well and truley above me. I have been given a video file and when copied to 'finder' it showed it was a unix executable file and it opened Terminal, again made no sense to me. I was informed to download MPEG Streamclip with no luck and the jargon I have read is goobledegook to me, sorry. Can anyone help pls in simple terms????

One thing you could try is to drop one of the files on to the vlc video player. If the file is truely a video file then odds are vlc will figure that out and be able to play it. It also has a menu to tell you info about the file so you could figure out what kind of file it actually is.
In the case of windows .wmv files you should add Flip4Mac. That would allow you to play those with QuickTime.
Similarly add Perian to add more power to QuickTime so that it too could possibly handle those files like vlc.

Unix Executable Files need to be Imported to ITunes

I have numerous sound files that are listed as Unix Executable Files in Finder. I can Play the sounds within Finder, but cannot seem to import them into ITunes. I read in another thread to simply add ".mp3" (or some other suffix) and then import. I don't know what the suffix should be, but I have tried .mp3, .aiff, and .wav, with none working. Are there other types of sound files I can try? Is there a way to make them become .mp3 (or something usable)? I have them stored on the HD, but would like to be able to share them or burn them to CD. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.
quicksilver power pc Mac OS X (10.4.8)

I got them from another Mac user when I first bought my Mac. Unfortunately, I no longer have contact with him, so no way to ask where he got them from. I know he had never owned a PC, but that doesn't mean they weren't originally from one. Thanks for the help.
quicksilver power pc Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Word Docs have become Unix Executable Files!

The subject says it. This has happened on both my wife's iMac G5, and my MacBook Pro. Some, not all, of our Word docs, (both using 2004, running OS X.4.7) have had their icons turned into a gray console, and in "Get Info" identify themselves as "Unix Executable File." When opened in Word, I get the option to open as if it were a foreign file, and typically, it opens with all formatting gone, and all kinds of bizarre characters at the beginning (and sometimes end) of the doc.
Now, I can salvage the data, it seems, but is there some way to simply undo this damage without manually going through every file?
I must say, this is exactly the kind of junk that I would expect to find on a PC. This is a stunningly bad problem, by far the worst I've experienced in almost 15 years of using Macs. I would assume that Apple is aware of this, and that they can:
1) Explain what happened.
2) Explain a quick and easy fix.
Thanks to anyone (from Apple or otherwise) who can do 1 and 2 above.

Jeffois,
The first command I gave to you will render the directory in question, and all nested directories, inaccessible. The second command will make the diretories accessible again.
There is a possibility that there are files in this directory structure which are not owned by you. Not likely, but I must make the assumption that these could be encountered when I give such commands "in the dark" as it were. In such a case, you would see an error regarding these files, thus the warning.
You can return your directories to accessibility using the second command, regardless of errors you might encounter. If you do encounter errors, I will post a different form of the same commands that will work.
Be prepared to deal with this problem any time you transfer files from a Windows-formatted volume. This is not a Windows problem, but rather one of differences between the two file systems. If you see a file show up with the executable icon, you might want to remove the execute bit right away. Unfortunately, there is no way to do this in the GUI, so you must resort to using Terminal.
This shouldn't be too much of a problem. Just open Terminal, type this text with a traling space:
<pre style="overflow:auto; font-family: 'Monaco'; font-size: 10px">chmod a-x</pre>
then select all of the new files and drag them all into the Terminal window. This will create a rather long command line that includes the full path to every file you dragged in. Just press <RETURN>, and "POOF," no more execute bit!
Scott

Photoshop .psd files converted to Unix Executable files

I'm an illustrator and I store my art on CDs and DVDs. After a period of time my files are converted from Photoshop .psd files to Unix Executable files and I can't open them. What can I do to get my work back??? -and keep this from happening in the future. Why does it do this????
Thanks for any help.

The file sizes range from 22.2 MB to 67.9 MB.
Size isn't the issue then. Linc was asking that question because we see that with other file types. Older fonts in particular, which have all of their data in the resource fork. If that gets stripped, you end up with a zero byte file.
Does that mean I'll have to go through the Adobe authorization process for Photoshop again?
If the version of Photoshop you're currently using is already activated, then no. Either way, it has nothing to do with .psd files showing as UNIX executables.
In Windows, any file that doesn't have an association to a program is displayed as a white, dog-eared piece of paper with the Windows logo in the middle. That's Windows' way of saying, "I have no idea what this is." In OS X, (except for those files which actually are UNIX executables), displaying them as such is OS X's way of saying the same thing.
I thought I was home free when the icon changed to a thumbnail picture of the illustration, but PS refuses to open it saying it is not a Photoshop file. ???
Now that is weird. As of Snow Leopard, Apple put the old Type and Creator codes to rest. It will read them as a last resort to try and identify an older file, but none of Apple's applications add them to any file they save. For better compatibility with Windows, and OS X's own underlying UNIX core, file extensions have taken their place. So adding a .psd extension should have worked. Without playing with one of your files, I couldn't tell you why Photoshop declared it wasn't a valid .psd image.
On a side note, Apple added Uniform Type Identifiers to OS X to keep things separate. A big problem in Windows is that multiple apps may use the same file extension. EPS is a big one in printing. So you have Photoshop, Illustrator, Freehand, Quark and others all using .eps for Encapsulated PostScript files. However, Windows can only associate one application to any given extension. So if Illustrator happens to be the one tagged to .eps files, it will try to open any file ending in .eps, no matter what program actually created it. OS X keeps them separate with Uniform Type Identifiers. So even though multiple files may have .eps file extensions, the extra metadata keeps track of what program it actually belongs to.
This is what is part of the LaunchServices database, and was why it was my first suggestion. If that database is wonky, you'll see weird things like this. Have you tried clearing it yet?
The files are fine when newly burned to CD. It is only months, or years, later that they become Unix Executable Files. This has happened to just about all of my CD backups and it's frustrating to think that CD backup doesn't work across newer OSs and Photoshop upgrades. I suspect that may be the problem, but it just shouldn't happen.
That shouldn't make a difference. I've got a bunch of very old files created in Photoshop back from OS 8 on CD. No file extensions, as nothing did at the time. Just Type and Creator codes. They all open fine in PS CS5.5 in Snow Leopard, though the native Photoshop files do need to have a .psd extension added.

Old Font Files in Leopard showing up as Unix Executable File

Is there any way I can make the computer be able to use and open the font files that now are being seen as Unix Executable Files even though they worked just fine as fonts before I upgraded to 10.5. I've tried putting new file extensions on them, or telling them to be opened with font book. I'm not sure what else to do, we have hundreds if not thousands of fonts that we need and that our customers need us to be able to use.

Thanks soo much everyone for all the help.
I've installed reset permissions, reset LaunchServices using OnyX, rebooted, and files are still "unix executable" to start with. I then used FileUtils app to "Clear Executible Status," which makes them open in txt editor, and say they are 0kb in size. I then renamed the extentions, playing around with a bunch of different types, and no luck at all with any of them.
Here is a screen shot (http://180bydesign.com/uploads/Picture5.png) of my folder (at top) with a list of fonts, and fontbook.app (at bottom) when I try to add a font from that location. No luck.
PS - here's something weird... I had a friend w/ Tiger send me a font suitcase which he zipped, and it did same thing, but then he zipped it twice (wierd, I know) and it worked! I unzipped the first one, then unzipped the second file within that first one, and WALLA, the suitcase actually looked and acted like a font. This doesn't help at all with all the other saved files, but it certainly helps. I might open a pc & try to double zip all the old ones & see if that does the trick.

Problems after opening "Get Document" Unix Executable file

After importing documents from my Dell computer to macbookpro and opening a file called "Get Document" which is a Unix Executable file, I now have dozens of these type of these type of files in "Places":
file://localhost/Users/sacredsprings/%25B0%2580%25A9%25C0SR
I had Linux installed on my Dell, and having read a few threads think it may be to do with that. Can I just safely delete all these files?

Sometimes ZIP files are made into self-expanding .exe files. When run on a PC, they will unzip without needing any unzipping software. They will not do this on a Mac, but Stuffit Expander may work with them
<http://www.stuffit.com/mac/expander/>

Unix Executable Files

after upgrading to Tiger 10.4.3, all my files that did not have a file extension (in particular all my fonts) are now Unix Executable files and unusable. is there any thing that can be done?

My boss if having the same problem! I however, am not. We have identical G5's, but our older G4's are slightly different with slightly different OS's and software. My boss has OS 10.1.3 and OS 9.2.2, also i have newer versions of photoshop and quark on my G4 than my boss does.
The file types he is having the issue with are .eps files from photoshop and illustrator, and quark files that don't have the extensions already. He was told by Support that the issue may be stemming from the fact that when he worked on his older mac, he booted up in OS 9, where as I always booted up in OS X and used OS 9 virtually.
We are trying to transfer the files directly now, while his older mac is booted up in OS X to see if that solves the Unix problem. But now we are running into the issue where, once the computers are hooked up by firewire, the process is freezing. Does anybody have any advice for us? We need HELP!!!
Thanks!
JdJ
Macintosh G5 Mac OS X (10.4.2) Old Mac - G4, OS X 10.3.2 & OS 9.2.2
Macintosh G5 Mac OS X (10.4.2) Old Mac - G4, OS X 10.3.2 & OS 9.2.2

Photoshop files show as unix executable files

Hi,
I've have a back-up drive with all my old files (the past 15 years). After I copied them over I noticed that most of them showed up as unix executable files. The most of the Quark files I was able to repair by adding .qxp. When I add the appropriate extension to my Photoshop files, (.tif, .eps) and then try to open them, PS won't recognize the files. Is there a fix to this. Unfortunately the originals have disappeared with a drive that crashed.
Thanks for any help.

Adding file extensions for unique application-types will work fine as long as there's an entry for LaunchServices to reference to - add the .qxd extension will "make" them Quark files, for example. The more generic types are going to be the problem, as there are many applications listed in LaunchServices that can open TIFF and EPS files. If you had files that you could absolutely identify as raw Photoshop files, adding a .psd extension would most likely work for those.
Maybe I just need to let all those files go...
Since it seems that only the resource fork has been munged, the files are probably fine - just missing the resource fork with the Type/Creator code and the preview info that Photoshop stores there.
-Doug

Recovered files now UNIX Executable Files???

After my previous external hard drive failed I had the data recovered and placed onto a new external drive. After looking at the files I have found that a number of them have become "unix executable files." I don't know what this is or how to fix it. It seems to have only happened to things such as saved emails, but there are some photos from my digital camera that have converted to this as well.
While looking into the problem I found that the company that recovered the data placed it all onto an external hard drive that is an MS-DOS File System (FAT32) format instead of a Mac OS format. Could this be the problem since all of my files were Mac files, and the hard drive they were recovered from was formatted to Mac OS?
If this is the case, is it something I can fix myself without loosing anything, or should I take it back to the place that recovered the data?
ANY help would be greatly appreciated!

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
Yes the file naming probably was messed about with when they copied stuff over to FAT32. The files are probably there. However, the just need the correct file suffix to associate with the correct programs. A good way to test the files without hurting them is to view them in the Terminal with the program called More. Go to Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal and you will be greeted by a prompt. At the prompt type the word
more
followed by a space (do NOT hit enter)
and drag the file into the terminal following the word "more" and then when the path appears, hit enter. If there is intelligible text, the file is probably an e-mail. If there is no intelligible text, it probably is an image, or a system file. Preview can open the files which are images and save them to specific formats. Depending on the number of files you had rescued, it might be better to ask them to rescue it again, but to a properly formatted volume. You can try yourself if you still have the old disk with Prosoft Data Rescue.
In anycase, this is a very good lesson to always backup your data in the future as my FAQ explains:
http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html
Good luck!

HT2128 How do I recover old files that are labeled "Unix Executable File?"

Some files that were transfered from and older mac are labeled "Unix Executable File." How do I resd these files?

There is a terminal command called file which will give you a hint of what the file is.
/Appliactions/Utilities/Terminal
me ~$ file pki
pki: directory
me ~$ file pulse-cookie
pulse-cookie: data
type file space drag & drop the file onto the terminal, press return.
Robert

Files changing to unix executable files in leopard!

I'm having files show up as UNIX EXECUTABLE FILES in Leopard. these are Quark Xpress files and a few tiff files.
These were backup files sent from a client on a Mac, there were compressed using Zip software. Also the same files that were not compressed are DOCUMENT files.
What is happening that Leopard can not recognize these files?
I tried removing "com.apple.LaunchServices" files

I found that a number of Windows files copied across to an external HFS+ hard disk from a Windows PC using MacDrive showed as Unix executables.
It turned out that they files had Execute permissions set for all users.
You can change the "Execute" setting using chmod in the terminal, but a simpler solution is to install FileUtilsCM, a free context menu control available from http://www.abracode.com/free/cmworkshop/file_utils.html
It offers a variety of high level controls, including remove file type and creator; remove resource fork; clear "execute" Unix attribute.
I found this fixed the problem for my files. The "clear execute" control fixed the file type, and the "remove type & creator" command converted the type back to Plain text from Document.
I don't know if it will work for your problem, but could be worth a try. Works in Leopard 10.5.1 for me.
Slightly more control is available from Super Get Info from Barebones http://www.barebones.com/products/super/index.shtml
That's not free, however, but it does allow you to set the file type and creator.
DN

Can't open recovered files, which are now Unix Executable Files

My external hard drive, where I kept my Final Cut Pro documents, recently died. I hired someone to recover the data. Now, when I try to open them in FCP 6, however, I get the message "File Error: Wrong Type". It says they are "Unix Executable Files". Looking back in this forum, none of the previous solutions have worked for me--like adding .mov to the file extensions, for example.

ah, the subtle difference between a movie or media file and a project file.
Thanks for posting your solution, hardly anyone ever does that around here. And congrats on the rescue! We rarely hear of a successful data recovery on media files but this was a data drive, yes? You could help future users who suffer catastrophic drive failures by posting your contractor and the cost if you want to share that information.
bogiesan

Unix executable file- in backup email files

Hello,
I've searched the discussions and found a few posts that resemble my question but nothing exactly/ nothing suggested has worked so far.
I have entire email files backed up to a LaCie drive- 2 actually. All of the email backup icons have been changed to "Unix executable file"- the icon is a grey box with "exec" on it.
The promising side is that the files are still large- 301 mgs, etc- so I would think there is still information in the file.
I've tried going into "Info" and changing "open with" to entourage or thunderbird. Or even Excel to see if I could get a tab delimited file and convert. Nothing has worked so far.
I've seen this before with other types of backup files as well. I haven't changed operating systems, have only been working on Macs, this has happened both on a wireless ethernet disk and a firewire drive.
Any suggestions? Thanks!
jz

Hi,
Never fear! Your original MacOS disks should include the developer tools. They call it xcode these days. By default it should install extra command line utilities in /Developer/Tools. So really the command should look like:
/Developer/Tools/SetFile -t 'TEXT' -c 'CSOm' your_mbox
You can add /Developer/Tools to your $PATH variable to avoid the extra typing. But you can do that later. Just replace your_mbox with the path to one of your Eudora mail boxes that you've copied back to your harddrive.
Cole

CDF type to Unix Executable File

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