File Read and Write Reference

File Read and Write Reference

This page lists the main places RawCull reads and writes files. Use it before changing sandbox access, cache locations, persistence, or export behavior.

File Map

Catalog Reads

The active catalog comes from the sidebar folder selection. RawCullViewModel.startCatalogLoad(for:) starts security-scoped access and then runs the scan.

Catalog reads include:

• directory enumeration,
• URL resource values,
• EXIF metadata via ImageIO,
• MakerNote focus points via RawParserKit,
• embedded thumbnails/JPEGs,
• optional focuspoints.json.

DiscoverFiles uses RawFormatRegistry.allExtensions so it follows the parser registry.

App Support Files

Application Support is used for durable app-owned data:

~/Library/Application Support/RawCull/

Important files:

savedfiles.json is written atomically. Burst-analysis cache validity is checked against file metadata and algorithm/signature versions before reuse.

Cache Files

Generated caches live under the user cache directory for the RawCull app identifier. They are performance data, not source-of-truth data.

Deleting these caches should only make RawCull slower until they are rebuilt. It should not lose ratings or manual decisions.

Exported JPEGs

ExtractAndSaveJPGs extracts embedded JPEG previews from RAW files and writes .jpg files next to the source RAW files through SaveJPGImage.

Because this writes into user-selected folders, it depends on the active security-scoped catalog access. The export path encodes image data before crossing concurrency boundaries where needed.

rsync Copy Workflow

The copy workflow is separate from thumbnail/scoring export. It uses rsync to copy selected RAW files based on rating/tag choices.

Main files:

Source and destination folders are restored from security-scoped bookmarks or fall back to selected paths.

Security-Scoped Bookmarks

The copy workflow stores bookmarks in UserDefaults after the user picks folders. The catalog browsing flow uses an active security-scoped URL owned by RawCullViewModel instead of creating a bookmark at picker time.

See Security-Scoped URLs for lifecycle details.

Settings

SettingsViewModel stores user settings with UserDefaults. Settings affect:

• thumbnail sizes,
• cache size maximums,
• focus/scoring options,
• memory/cache defaults.

Background actors use SettingsViewModel.shared.asyncgetsettings() to snapshot settings into a SavedSettings value before using them off the main actor.

Diagnostics Reads

RawFileDiagnostics reads RAW files and parser metadata for developer-facing reports. It can call both Sony and Nikon parser diagnostics and report ImageIO properties, embedded JPEG locations, focus-parser output, and format classification.

Diagnostics should be read-only.

What To Check When Changing This Area

• Writes outside the app container need active security-scoped access.
• App-owned durable data belongs in Application Support, not Caches.
• Rebuildable performance data belongs in Caches, not Application Support.
• If a cache stores derived algorithm output, include enough version/signature metadata to reject stale data.
• Keep process-output parsing separate from process lifecycle management.