Determining "volumes" of paths on macOS and iOS.

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Created Oct ’24

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Hi, so as I understand it is not possible to know what all possible sources of files are available on iOS using some api call (by sources I mean smb shares connected, iCloud, gdrive, etc), the only paths I can get are the app sandbox, app group container and the same on iCloud. I can get the list of mount points in macOS using getmntinfo(), app/group sandbox and apart from these whatever standard locations I have given access to to my sandboxed app. Are there other paths that I can get?

I want to know how I can determine the volume given a user picks a file using a file picker. Say, they picked 10 files from gdrive and another 5 from local storage. If I encounter some errors on the files from gdrive I want to stop working on all 10 of them but to do that I need to be able to determine that that are on this particular volume. Is there a way to do this programmatically?

Ex: gdrive on iOS : "/private/var/mobile/Containers/Shared/AppGroup/6208BBEE-24BF-4CC9-A9ED-846F987C0442/File Provider Storage/39822865/1P8WD1tWEaq81ZB_DodTTZhXm0p00QaF7/test.txt" on MacOS: "/Users/username/Library/CloudStorage/GoogleDrive-useremailid/My Drive"

Answered by DTS Engineer in 806978022

Are there other paths that I can get?

The exact extent of the static sandbox is not documented as API. I talk about this in On File System Permissions.

Oh, and while getmntinfo works, the mountedVolumeURLs(includingResourceValuesForKeys:options:) method is probably a better choice.

I need to be able to determine that that are on this particular volume. Is there a way to do this programmatically?

Sure. You can do this at a variety of different layers. My general advice is that you do file system stuff using FileManager and URL. In this case, the volumeIdentifierKey resource key is the droid you’re looking for. However, I recommend that you survey the list of these keys but there’s a lot of really useful info in there. For example, volumeURLKey returns the URL of the volume on which a file system object resides.

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Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"

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Answer 1

DTS Engineer OP

Apple

Oct ’24

Recommended

Are there other paths that I can get?

The exact extent of the static sandbox is not documented as API. I talk about this in On File System Permissions.

Oh, and while getmntinfo works, the mountedVolumeURLs(includingResourceValuesForKeys:options:) method is probably a better choice.

I need to be able to determine that that are on this particular volume. Is there a way to do this programmatically?

Sure. You can do this at a variety of different layers. My general advice is that you do file system stuff using FileManager and URL. In this case, the volumeIdentifierKey resource key is the droid you’re looking for. However, I recommend that you survey the list of these keys but there’s a lot of really useful info in there. For example, volumeURLKey returns the URL of the volume on which a file system object resides.

Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"

1

Answer 2

Systems Engineer OP

Apple

Oct ’24

Say, they picked 10 files from gdrive and another 5 from local storage. If I encounter some errors on the files from gdrive I want to stop working on all 10 of them but to do that I need to be able to determine that that are on this particular volume.

You seem to be making the assumption that e.g. Google Drive will be a separate volume compared to local storage, but for the record this is not how these things generally work; files from this kind of “file providers” will still reside in local storage, and the File Provider framework is the one which synchronizes them with their remote storage behind the scenes.

(Your concern of course still applies for external drives, SMB shares and the like.)

2