What is .hotfiles.btree in a Mac?

[sr71blackbird]

I do regular virus scans on my iMac and I never can scan the .hotfiles.btree file. What is it and why cant I scan it? I use Norton for Mac.

[underdog]

This file is new to 10.3, as is the feature that uses it. 10.3 introduced a technology called "Hot-File-Adaptive-Clustering" (HFAC) that will do two tasks to improve the system:

1. Whenever you open a file less than 20MB in size, HFAC checks it for fragmentation. (Files larger than 20MB will need to be defragmented by a 3rd-party utility such as Norton or DiskWarrior. If HFAC finds fragmentation, it repairs it automatically and moves the entire length of the file to a sector on the hard drive big enough for the file. The old storage sectors are then erased and declared empty for use again.

(NOTE: For those of you that make use of Panther's government-approved "Secure Delete" option when emptying the Trash, this most likely does not apply that. Remember that a normal file deletion merely removes the reference from the file directory; the data is still there. Thus, the same can probably be said for the locations of the once-fragmented file pieces.

2. HFAC also seems to be moving frequently accessed files to the fastest part of the hard drive (presumably the inner rings) for faster access times. This frequency would be measured over multiple restarts, longer than virtual memory would store frequent data.

This brings us to the purpose of the .hotfiles.btree file. A B-tree file stores the file directory so the system can access a file when requested (read more on the immense coolness of B-trees here. This file most likely stores the file directory of the "hot files" stored on the inner rings of the hard drive for fastest access. The directory is maintained here separately for easy (and fast) access.
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[sr71blackbird]

So this means its okay? Whenever I do the virus scan, that's thos only area that comes up as not scanned because nortion says its not allowed to access it.

[furie]

yeah it's fine

[donnie_darko]

i've owned macs for almost 15 years and i've never had a virus....

nor have i seen someone get one on a forum.

[drusilla]

i dont think i've ever run a virus scan on mine. should i? i thought it was unnecessary.

[KnoxHarrington]

It's a file created to store tranny porn