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Resource forks in Mach-O binaries

Q: Is it ok to build resources into a resource fork in my Mach-O binary on Mac OS X?

A: No, you should not add resources in a resource fork to Mach-O binaries. Tools like strip, ranlib, and update_prebinding will ignore such binaries in Mac OS X version 10.2 and up, and could erase the resource fork of Mach-O binaries in Mac OS X versions prior to 10.2. Tools like update_prebinding will actually be run automatically on binaries as needed by the system, so don't assume that because you do not explicitly use such tools, that your binaries are safe. Write resources that your application needs out to a data fork based resource file instead.

[Aug 07 2002]

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