And because of this, a single copy is really two copies: the system volume (when unmodified) and the data volume (where your stuff resides).Again, all this is done for you, and we hide the details.but if you see some new volumes, you now know why. These volumes are now set up in a "volume group". The read-only system volume, which contains Apple's files, is called "Backup". If your backup was previously called "Backup", your files are now on a volume called "Backup - Data". Any existing APFS volumes are properly split into these new Data and System volumes.SuperDuper automatically converts any HFS+ destinations to APFS volumes for you (after prompting), so you won't have to do anything manually in most cases. In order to replicate this new volume setup, system backups of APFS volumes must be to APFS formatted volumes.But behind the scenes, we've made a lot of modifications: In SuperDuper, you won't notice any changes for the most part. Make this invisibleĪgain, Apple has tried to make this invisible, and for the most part, that's what they've done. And they're stitched together with "firmlinks", a new, system-only feature that makes two volumes look like one at the directory level. The system is on its own "System" volume. Your files, and dynamic system files, are on a new "Data" volume. But behind the scenes, two separate volumes have been created. It doesn't look that way in Finder: everything seems like it was. I forget, but basically this is where the entire system has been made read-only, and placed on its own, separate volume. Stage 5Īnd now we're at Stage 5, which is either denial or acceptance.
Some areas of the drive couldn't even be viewed, let alone copied, but with certain types of authorization (like Full Disk Access), copying could be done. Next came System Integrity Protection (SIP), which took that concept and extended it to some user files as well. Fortunately, before shipping, they fixed that problem, and copying worked as expected. That caused some initial consternation that I documented on this blog, because Apple "overprotected" the system, even when it wasn't the startup drive.
The next step was adding a special attribute ("") that caused the file system driver to "protect" certain files on the drive. Most people aren't aware these exist, but they're super handy. In 10.4, Apple added ACLs, which are more fine-grained "Access Control Lists": super detailed permissions for files and folders that can be inherited. The "super user" could override those permissions, so while you were normally denied access to "system" files, a little "permission escalation" allowed you to modify anything you wanted.Īnd, since "you" could modify anything with a little work, so could something that had unkind intent. Permissions and ownership were used to establish what you could or couldn't do with a file. MacOS started out with pretty "standard" Unix-style protections.
Let's just do a quick refresher of how we got to where we are now. Drives are DifferentĪpple's intention is to hide the details, so it's possible you didn't notice, but in Catalina APFS drives are now quite a bit different than they were before.
Once that was out, we finalized our testing, and now we're putting the public beta into your waiting arms/hands/drives/computers.whatever metaphor here is appropriate. Rather than put out something that was at the mercy of the underlying system, whose release process we couldn't control or predict, we decided to hold off until the real release.
Many things involving the drive setup were changing and being reworked as the summer wore on. This version has been a long time coming, and while we hoped to have a beta during Catalina's development, we really didn't like the stability of Catalina during the process. Details of our journey may come later, when I'm in a more narrative mood.
This post is mostly a just-the-facts-ma'am discussion of changes in Catalina that have affected us and may affect you. As promised, at the bottom of this post is a link to our Catalina beta.Ī very dramatic announcement! (Also, see for details.) /AUFtTuesUh- Dave Nanian October 18, 2019