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nagromme
nagromme
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What are the file name(s) for CS6 scratch data on Mac?

Feb 7, 2013 10:30 PM

Tags: #file #photoshop #hidden #cache #cs6 #root #scratch_disk #backup #hard_drive #exclude #time_machine #disk_space #time_capsule

I see people saying the file (or is it multiple files?) is kept in the HD root. I don't see anything there (I only have one drive) that looks relevant to Photoshop, even when I view invisible files. Anyone know where the file is, and what it's named? Is it invisible?

 

The reason I ask is that I want to exclude it from my ongoing Time Machine backups. I'm slowly learning the various Adobe folders that I need to exclude manually. (AutoRecover, Application Support/Adobe... in fact, the bazillion CS6 folders within Applications, since I'll just restore them from Creative Cloud if I have a failure.)

 

Sometimes Time Machine has been doing a big backup for reasons unknown, and I think the recent installation ogf CS6 may be the culprit.

 

Thanks in advance!

636 Views   17 Replies   Latest reply: JJMack, Feb 9, 2013 12:52 PM
 
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  • Mylenium
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    1. Mylenium,
    Feb 7, 2013 11:32 PM   in reply to nagromme
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    It uses the standard temp virtual device/ folder path, which already is excluded from Timemachine.

     

    Mylenium

     
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  • nagromme
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    2. nagromme,
    Feb 8, 2013 9:30 AM   in reply to Mylenium
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    Excellent! Thanks.

     

    I see it there. For the use of posterity, here's the filename (and it's not there when PS isn't running, unless maybe after a crash):

     

    /tmp/com.adobe.csi.ctrl-CS6-shortrusername

     

    Meanwhile, I'd wondered whether auto-saves might go to the same place, but they're in:

     

    ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe Photoshop CS6/AutoRecover

     

    (You can get to ~/Library by option-clicking the Go menu). I believe Time Machine DOES back up Application Support (I hope so, since it contains vital stuff) but I excluded the AutoRecover directory.

     
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  • conroy
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    3. conroy,
    Feb 8, 2013 1:11 PM   in reply to nagromme
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    nagromme wrote:

     

    Excellent! Thanks.

     

    I see it there. For the use of posterity, here's the filename (and it's not there when PS isn't running, unless maybe after a crash):

     

    /tmp/com.adobe.csi.ctrl-CS6-shortrusername

     

     

    Why do you say that file is the scratch?

     

    That file will be in the system volume regardless of which volume is being used for "scratch disk", and it appears to be used by the CS6ServiceManager process.

     
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  • nagromme
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    4. nagromme,
    Feb 8, 2013 1:16 PM   in reply to conroy
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    I was just following Mylenium's lead into the tmp folder.

     

    Where, then IS the real scratch file, and what is it named?

     

    (How I wish I didn't have to have all this extra... stuff... installed just to use Adobe's apps!)

     
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  • conroy
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    5. conroy,
    Feb 8, 2013 2:17 PM   in reply to nagromme
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    My suspicion is that OS X does not reveal the scratch file(s), neither in Finder nor in Terminal. Many GB can be consumed from the scratch volume with no file seen to account for it. Below is a screenshot of a volume when about 20GB is being consumed by the Photoshop scratch. The volume's free space does decline as the scratch grows (and the free space is recovered when Photoshop is quit) but there's no file.

     

    Screen shot 2013-02-08 at 21.29.14.png

     

     

    Occasionally, a short-lived file will appear in the TemporaryItems (no prefixed period) directory but it will be only a few MB. The name will have the form "Adobe Photoshop CS631035433849077" (digits vary) but its size is never anywhere near large enough to account for the scratch and it tends to vanish after only a few minutes, although the scratch continues to exist... somewhere.

     

    Will an engineer answer the OP's question, please?

     
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  • nagromme
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    6. nagromme,
    Feb 8, 2013 2:29 PM   in reply to conroy
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    Very interesting.

     

    I'd be surprised to hear that OS X supports 3rd-party creation of a file that the owner/admin using Terminal cannot even see exists! But it sure looks that way. Have you tried an ls -R -a in Terminal too? (R for recursive to see inside subdirectories, a for all to see invisibles.) I ask only because I've found Finder's display of invisible files to be quirky. (Specifically: I change the filename I'm searching for and the list doesn't update. So I could believe the Finder's list might be unreliable in other ways as well. Probably not, I just wonder.)

     

    I hope Adobe's not doing something weird with the filesystem (why would they need to anyway)... that's the kind of thing I don't need to be thinking about in the night!

     
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  • conroy
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    7. conroy,
    Feb 8, 2013 3:16 PM   in reply to nagromme
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    Have you tried an ls -R -a in Terminal too? (R for recursive to see inside subdirectories, a for all to see invisibles.)

     

    Yes, and I've tried finding the scratch files on several occasions and never been able to find anything.

     
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  • Chris Cox
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    8. Chris Cox,
    Feb 8, 2013 5:08 PM   in reply to conroy
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    Photoshop unlinks the scratch files during creation of them - so that they disappear automatically when the app is closed or crashes.

    Also, this was worked out with the Apple filesystem team to improve both security and performance.

     
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  • conroy
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    9. conroy,
    Feb 8, 2013 5:31 PM   in reply to Chris Cox
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    Thanks, Chris!

     
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  • nagromme
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    10. nagromme,
    Feb 8, 2013 8:26 PM   in reply to Chris Cox
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    Interesting, thanks. Must be for performance reasons then. I didn't know OS X could do such a thing! And that's why in my Googling I could find nobody mentioning the file name(s). I suppose you might see them in some disk recovey tools possibly, but nowhere else.

     
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  • Curt Y
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    11. Curt Y,
    Feb 8, 2013 8:38 PM   in reply to nagromme
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    Not being a Mac guy don't know if this is pertinent or not, but a Mac does have a hidden user library also.  Instructions I have to show -  select menu Go and when flyout menu shows press option key.

     
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  • conroy
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    12. conroy,
    Feb 9, 2013 4:57 AM   in reply to Curt Y
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    Curt, the scratch files are more hidden than hidden. They've been turned into some kind of Dark Matter.

     
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  • Noel Carboni
    21,006 posts
    Dec 23, 2006
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    13. Noel Carboni,
    Feb 9, 2013 7:12 AM   in reply to Chris Cox
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    Chris, thank you for teaching me something new.  I wasn't aware that on a Mac the scratch files disappear while in use.

     

    On the outset it sounds to be a bad idea to work outside the normal directories, but I trust that you and the Apple folks know better how to best use the Apple file system for this purpose.

     

    -Noel

     
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  • conroy
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    14. conroy,
    Feb 9, 2013 10:49 AM   in reply to nagromme
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    nagromme wrote:

     

    I didn't know OS X could do such a thing!

     

     

    I didn't know about it either but, apparently, the technique is common:

     

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_link

     

    "If one of the links is removed with the POSIX unlink function (for example, with the UNIX rm command), then the data are still accessible through any other link that remains. If all of the links are removed and no process has the file open, then the space occupied by the data is freed, allowing it to be reused in the future. This semantic allows for deleting open files without affecting the process that uses them. This technique is commonly used to ensure that temporary files are deleted automatically on program termination, including the case of abnormal termination."

     
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  • nagromme
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    15. nagromme,
    Feb 9, 2013 12:40 PM   in reply to conroy
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    Reminds me of the interesting techniques Time Machine uses to make delta backups appear in the file system as complete and self-contained backups.

     

    http://pondini.org/TM/Works.html

    (Not the article I remember reading, but it's what came up!)

     
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  • conroy
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    16. conroy,
    Feb 9, 2013 12:47 PM   in reply to nagromme
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    Ah, the multiple hard link directories of Time Machine. That's one trick I did know about.

     
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  • JJMack
    3,425 posts
    Jan 9, 2006
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    17. JJMack,
    Feb 9, 2013 12:52 PM   in reply to Noel Carboni
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    I think that at one time or an other every OS system that I have work with that it or one of its files system through me for a loop. The one that stands out in my mind I encountered when I was using Microsoft OS2.  Which they dumped onto big blue. OS2 was object oriented and I did not fully understand what that meant.  One day I fixed a program and tested the fix.  I then renamed the old program in the system folder and copied in the new program.  Then I went and told my manager.  When he launched the program the old bug was still there.  OS2 being object oriented had changed all links, shortcut whatever you want to call them to point to the renamed program and it executed it even though its name was something like programname.exeold. You got to love computers

     
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