Stopping ._ files being created on non-Mac volumes

When editing a file on a non-Mac volume (e.g. when editing files on a samba share) you may notice that an additional file gets created along with the one you’re editing, prefixed with “._”.

For example if you create a file called Filename.txt, a file called ._Filename.txt will also be created. You may also see a file called .DS_Store appear.

They’re meta files, which are fine on a Mac HFS file system because they’re stored in the resource fork and invisible to the end user. However, when you’re working on another filesystem, as I do when editing files on my linux VM, you’re gonna get tired of these suckers pretty quick, so what can you do?

Apple knowledge base has this fix for stopping resource fork files getting created on SMB mounts.

I also use a fix for telling Textmate to stop creating all resource fork files, just copy the following into the terminal on your Mac:

defaults write com.macromates.textmate OakDocumentDisableFSMetaData 1