Legacy Document

Inside Macintosh: Files /

Chapter 2 - File Manager / Identifying Files, Directories, and Volumes

File System Specifications

Conventions for identifying files, directories, and volumes have evolved as the File Manager has matured. System software version 7.0 introduced a simple, standard form for identifying a file or directory, called a file system specification. You can use a file system specification whenever you must identify a file or directory for the File Manager.

A file system specification contains

• the volume reference number of the volume on which the file or directory resides
• the directory ID of the parent directory
• the name of the file or directory

For a complete description of the file system specification (FSSpec) record, see "File System Specification Record" on page 2-86.

The Standard File Package in system software version 7.0 uses FSSpec records to identify files to be saved or opened. The File Manager provides a new set of high-level routines that accept FSSpec records as input, so that your application can pass the data directly from the Standard File Package to the File Manager. The Alias Manager and the Edition Manager accept file specifications only in the form of FSSpec records.

The Finder introduced in version 7.0 uses alias records, which are resolved into FSSpec records, to identify files to be opened or printed.

Version 7.0 also introduced the FSMakeFSSpec function, which initializes an FSSpec record for a particular file or directory. For a description of FSMakeFSSpec, see "Creating File System Specification Records" on page 2-34.