Unix executable file won't open HELP!

I am having the same problem as one other person, my word folder has changed to a Unix executable file and I can't open the content in the folders anymore. I was just using the folder yesterday and now they are now working. Please help!

I'm not sure if this is your problem. But I was futzing with a file, and intentionally removed most of it's attributes, as reported by the mdls command.
I was able to get enough of them back, for the file to be recognized by the finder again.
This command lists the different importers.
$ mdimport -L
find the one that matches the filetype. Then run the following, where testfile is the file that you're having problems with.
mdimport -g /System/Library/Spotlight/XXXXXX.mdimporter testfile
I don't use Word, so I can't tell you the name of the importer file that you need. It may be possible to just
run
mdimport testfile
Nils

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Unix Executable Files how to open

I have a disc from a design company which contains many Unix Executable Files. I have no idea what the content files extensions are and some of the files are quite large. The cotents are important for my job. Is there any way I can open these files? A 5 hour internet search and I'm no closer to a solution, I'm just more confused. I am scared to just try adding a 'guess' extention as the contents I am hoping to find are ai, psd or other hi res but there could be text data. I am scared of destroying stuff. Can anyone help me please?
Thank you,
Amanda

If the file follows the "proper conventions", in terminal use the file command. In terminal, type the command file followed by a space. Then drag one of the files into the terminal window. You will see a line that looks something like,
file path-to-file
Hit return. If it's a file that the file command can recognize it will tell you what it thinks it is. It it isn't it will tell you it's just a data file.
If it's a executable mach-o file file will tell you that and for which architecture. But if you are getting these files from some non-Mac system the odds are pretty good they can't be executed in the mac environment because they won't follow the mac architectural coding conventions or they aren't even mach-o executables in the first place. If they did come from a mac system and are executable, then without any documentation on each file you can only guess at what they may do (or screw up). Many unix tools have a convention where if you just execute them without any arguments they may give you some minimum help info on what they do. But it may not.
Not one of those files documents what on that CD?
If file does recognize the file, say as a pdf, or text, etc., then you probably can use mac tools to open them. For example, if it's pdf (gif, jpg, etc.) open it with preview. If text, open with textedit.

File won't open - HELP

Hi All,
I was using a file in Captivate 7 and it was saved with a timestamp of 3.41pm.
Captivate crashed so I did CTRL + ALT + DEL and closed captivate and reopened it however I got the following error (view attached),
I also reset the computer and tried again and got the same message. Is there someway I can recover this. Eg, renaming project etc?
Please help.
Many thanks
Tony

Information about recovering projects here:
http://www.infosemantics.com.au/adobe-captivate-troubleshooting/recover-corrupt-project

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.

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

"Unix Executable File" how to read?

In clean up my older folders I've found several files that don't have any of the usual icons, but rather a Terminal file icon and the Get Info shows that they are "Unix Executable Files."
I opened them using Text Edit and found that some have the type/creator code of WDBN MSWD and others are PICT SPNT, or DRWG MD

Tod Wicks wrote:
In clean up my older folders I've found several files that don't have any of the usual icons, but rather a Terminal file icon and the Get Info shows that they are "Unix Executable Files."
I opened them using Text Edit and found that some have the type/creator code of WDBN MSWD and others are PICT SPNT, or DRWG MD
According to this Web page
http://support.grouplogic.com/?p=1563
the first one is a Microsoft Word file. According to a Web search the second one is from SuperPaint and the third is from MacDraw.

Unix Executable Files...why won't they open?

I now have a new iMac and using Mavericks 10.9.3. I used TimeMachine to transfer my files (that contained these strange "Exec" files after I had updated to Mavericks on my previous iMac) a number of these files turned into something called "Exec" files (Black rectangular icon with green "exec" in the upper left corner). and randomly appeariing in diff software. Have these files become corrupted? Should I trash them?
Thanks for any help
Julie

In the Finder, click on these Exec files and press command+I. If the file is an AppleWorks document (even with no extension) it will tell you that. If it is a UNIX shell script with owner+group+world execute permissions, or a compiled executable from source code, it will state that it is a UNIX Executable File.
In the Terminal application, you can use the file command to discern (usually) more accurately what these black Exec documents comprise. The filenames that I use below at random, were created on my machine.
file -b dictx2
Mach-O 64-bit executable x86_64
file -b mvim
POSIX shell script text executable
file -b fubar.cwk # Finder Get Info says it is an AppleWorks document, and opens nicely in LibreOffice
data
The decision to delete these depends on what they are, the purpose they may continue to serve, and in the case of word processing documents, content for retention consideration.

Need help opening Unix Executable Files

I've recently been given the task of updating various files containing instruction manuals. However, the person who created these files is long gone and no one seems to know what program they were created in. All I know is that they are listed as "Unix Executable File" when I click on the document. I've tried opening them in TextEdit and this does me no good. Does anyone know how I can determine what program these files were originally created in so that I can open them?

Files that have no filename extensions (used by Windows and OS X, but not by OS 9) and have lost their Type and Creator codes (used by OS 9, but not by Windows or OS X), and are then written to a DOS-formatted disc by OS 9 and copied back to a Mac disc, are usually if not always misidentified by the OS X Finder as Unix executables.
Your company's old files, created in applications that ran in OS 9, probably have never had any filename extensions. Their Type and Creator codes have evidently been lost; those are what OS 9 uses to link the files to the applications that created them. If the files have also been written by OS 9 to any disk or flash drive formatted for Windows, i.e. FAT16 or FAT32, they have also lost their resource forks. The resource fork is a portion of a Mac file that has no analogous structure in a PC file. When a Mac file that contains data in its resource fork is written by OS 9 to a PC-formatted storage device, there's no place in the Windows file structure for that data — so it is simply discarded. When the Mac file is later copied back onto a Mac-formatted storage device, its resource fork is gone along with whatever data it contained, and the file may for all practical purposes be destroyed. OS X handles writing Mac files to Windows-formatted drives more gracefully, but passing files back and forth between OS 9 and OS X via a Windows-formatted storage device is asking for trouble.
I don't know just what practices have been used in moving these files from the Macs they were created on to the one you're trying to open them on now, but I suspect there has been some unwitting demolition in the process.
If copies of these files are still stored on the old Mac on which they were created, and that Mac still works, get on it and double-click the saved copies of the files to open them in the program(s) that created them, and make notes of which application opens each of the files. Be aware that the folder structure containing the files may have to be preserved exactly as it is for the files to open properly — do not reorganize anything. It may be essential, for example, for a PageMaker file to be kept in the same folder as all the individual files that have been "placed" in it using the Place command in PageMaker. If any of those files are moved elsewhere, they may be missing from the PageMaker document when it opens. I've never used Quark or Freehand, so I don't know whether they have the same requirement, or other requirements that are less than obvious.
Any of the old manuals that you're able to open in their original applications can be saved as PDF files using an invaluable OS 9-based "printer driver" called PrintToPDF. They can then be opened in Adobe Reader or Preview on your G5 running OS X, though you won't be able to edit them easily. If you require the ability to edit these files on the G5, rather than on the old computer using the apps that originally created them, you will need first to discover which OS 9-based application created each one, and then ascertain what if any current OS X-based application is able to open the file format used by that old application. In the case of PageMaker files, that will probably be Adobe InDesign or nothing. InDesign may also open old Quark files; I don't know. Aldus or Adobe Freehand files may be openable using Adobe Illustrator. These are just guesses.
Dragging and dropping the files onto MS Word or TextWrangler may reveal, buried somewhere in them, the name of the application(s) that created them. I know a PageMaker file, opened as plain text, will always contain the word "PageMaker". As for other file formats, I'm not sure.
Message was edited by: eww
Message was edited by: eww

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

Applications only open with Unix Executable File!

Safari and three other applications hang.
I've tried a bunch of tricks to get them working right with no real success.
I can run Safari (and others) by opening the Unix Executable File in the .App bundle!?
*Can anyone explain to me why this works?
The applications also open fine in Safe Mode.
Any help would be great! Thanks!
More Detail Here: https://discussions.apple.com/message/18176135?ac_cid=142432#18176135

Afer lots of struggling with this, I finally rebuilt Launch Services with OnyX and all is well again.
Probably my fault for messing around with the FileSystem to often experimenting with this and that.
With any luck this might hlep someone else too!
Hackintoshes are computers too!

How open old Appleworks documents that appear as UNIX executable files?

A few of my old Appleworks or Clarisworks files won't open with Appleworks 6, but show up as a "UNIX executable file." I have tried adding the ".cwk" extension, repairing permissions using Disk Utility, and using Finder>File>Get info>Open to choose Apleworks 6 (it already was selected) as recommended by Peggy. With ".cwk" extension, I then get "that file appears to be damaged and cannot be opened."
Any other suggestions?

Hi Cloyd G,
welcome to Apple Discussions and the AppleWorks forum.
The 'UNIX executable file' classification error appears to arise mostly from the lack of a suffix (.cwk) on the original file. If adding the .cwk suffix does not make the file readable by AppleWorks, and gives a 'file appears to be damaged' message, then it's likely that the file has indeed been damaged.
If it's a word processor file, you could try opening it in a Text editor (such as Text Edit, supplied with OS X, or Text Wrangler, available free from Bare Bones Software). You'll get a large amount of junk (file meta data and formatting codes, etc.) with the text of your document somewhere in the middle. If you know a single word that is in (or is likely to be in) the document, a search using command-F should take you directly there. Copy the text and paste it into a new AW document.
For spreadsheet files, you can try dragging the file and dropping it onto a new, empty spreadsheet document. The same technique may also work for database files. I've never tried or seen recommended the same texchnique for Draw or Paint files, but attemptng it should do no harm.
Best of luck with this.
Regards,
Barry

Opening a Unix Executable File

I am a Mac newbie, switching from PC. I do embroidery digitizing and downloaded several embroidery designs in "zipped" format. When I viewed them in the Get Info dialog, they were listed as Unix Executable Files. When I tried to open one, a dialog box came up saying that I needed to choose a file to open them with. What program or helper app do I choose?
Respectfully,
Patricia

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/>

HELP! Indesign changes to Unix executable file

I have a Mac Xeon Dual core quad pro running an older Mac OSX and have recently bought a Macbook running OS 10.6.
On my old mac I use Indesign / Illustrator / Photoshop CS3 (no money to upgrade yet) and all works fine.
This week I transferred some Indesign files to my laptop to work in another office. The files show up as Unix executable files. They have the correct tags on the end of filenames and work fine on the old mac. Indesign and Illustrator have also been crashing on startup and I have had to dump out prefs twice now.
Illustrator files show up as Unix executable file as well and all have a grey icon.
I migrated everything over from the old mac to the laptop.
It is driving me mad as I have to trust that I can work on this out of the office.
If I upgrade to a newer version of the programmes will it solve the problem?
Any help gratefully received please!
PS I am a designer, so please use simple language - I do not have a lot of techie knowledge about macs
Thanks!

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

HELP! Files won't open and previously had Firefox icon instead of DW icons! Leap Year thing?

Hi! I went to update my website, which I do every night before the first day of every month and all the files had a FIrefox icon instead of the usual Dreamweaver one. I have shut down, reinstalled DW MX 2004 but the files still do not open. The icons have now changed to DW but they are not opening with right click, opening from Applications folder, double clicking the file, from get info and open with DW. I am stumped. HELP! Need to update for March 1st.
Is it something to do with Leap Year 29th Feb? Checked the clock in preferences but can't see how this affects it.
Firefox is always updated but the latest version does not seem to be as efficient as previous upgrades. We installed Chrome as well. Do they interfere with each other?

Hi Ken
I wish the 7.1 updater download had helped but it didn¹t. All the files
were backed up before the installation, which went fine.
Mac 10.5.8
We used Disc Warrior to defrag the hard drive, which did not make a
difference.
We recently started using Chrome, so now have 3 browsers in the dock,
Safari, Firefox and Chrome. Do they interfere in any way with each other?
The files, which I hadn¹t touched for a month as I update on a monthly
basis, initially had the Firefox icon.
Below is the message to send to Apple, which did not go through their report
system! A little disillusioned with the service!
Model: iMac9,1, BootROM IM91.008D.B08, 2 processors, Intel Core 2 Duo, 3.06
GHz, 4 GB
Graphics: kHW_NVidiaGeForceGT130Item, NVIDIA GeForce GT 130,
spdisplays_pcie_device, 512 MB
Memory Module: global_name
AirPort: spairport_wireless_card_type_airport_extreme (0x14E4, 0x8E),
Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (5.10.91.22)
Bluetooth: Version 2.1.9f10, 2 service, 0 devices, 1 incoming serial ports
Network Service: Ethernet, Ethernet, en0
Network Service: AirPort, AirPort, en1
Serial ATA Device: WDC WD1001FALS-40K1B0, 931.51 GB
Serial ATA Device: PIONEER DVD-RW DVRTS08
USB Device: Built-in iSight, (null) mA
USB Device: Keyboard Hub, (null) mA
USB Device: iLok, (null) mA
USB Device: Apple Optical USB Mouse, (null) mA
USB Device: Apple Keyboard, (null) mA
USB Device: Deskjet 3840, (null) mA
USB Device: BRCM2046 Hub, (null) mA
USB Device: Bluetooth USB Host Controller, (null) mA
USB Device: IR Receiver, (null) mA
FireWire Device: d2 quadra (button), LaCie, 800mbit_speed
Does not mean a thing to me.
I am not late with updating the site, which is about New Zealand culture,
month by month (www.englishteacher.co.nz). Probably only the third time I
have been late since 2005. Not a huge amount of traffic, ~300 a month and
free access to content but I would like to solve this problem.
Could a reciprocal link have caused a problem?
At my wits end.
I really appreciate the help though.
Cheers Yvonne
From: Ken Binney <[email protected]>
Reply-To: <[email protected]>
Date: Wed, 29 Feb 2012 06:42:11 -0700
To: Yvonne and Bill Hynson <[email protected]>
Subject: HELP! Files won't open and previously had Firefox
icon instead of DW icons! Leap Year thing?
Re: HELP! Files won't open and previously had Firefox icon instead of DW
icons! Leap Year thing?
created by Ken Binney <http://forums.adobe.com/people/Ken+Binney> in
Dreamweaver - View the full discussion
<http://forums.adobe.com/message/4236682#4236682>
Not necessarily related, but did you also install the 7.1
updater? http://www.adobe.com/support/dreamweaver/downloads_updaters.html
Windows or MAC?
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I just used stellar phoenix mac data recovery and it seemed to work but now my files won't open. Even though they are "jpeg, mov" files the error message is could not be opened. The movie's file format isn't recognized. " Any help or are they corrupted

I just used stellar phoenix mac data recovery and it seemed to work but now my files won't open. Even though they are "jpeg, mov" files, the error message is "could not be opened". The movie's file format isn't recognized. " Any help or are they corrupted?

Sounds to me like the file is probably corrupt. If you had hard drive corruption or damage, that could easily result in recovered files not being fully intact. If you were trying to recover accidentally deleted files, it's possible they might have been partially overwritten before recovering. There are never any guarantees with file recovery.
Without more information on the circumstances that led you to try recovery, it's hard to give advice on what to try from here. You could always try another file recovery tool, like Data Rescue 3. Just be sure you're taking appropriate precautions when doing recovery. See Recovering deleted files.

Unix executable file won't open HELP!

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