Need help opening Unix Executable Files

First, from the terms you're using ("Text Edit") it sounds like you are looking on these in some version of OSX, not OS9 as your computer information states and the forum in which you are posting.

Can you use "Get Info" to see an extension on these files? It is possible they come from a source the Mac couldn't identify and are, in fact, not Unix executable files but some other format. It would strike me as unusual that somebody would place an instruction manual in that format.

If these are truly Unix executable files then it is questionable if you really want to mess with them. Here's [an example|http://forums.macosxhints.com/archive/index.php/t-36768.html] of what might be involved.

To more easily see any existing File Extensions open:
Finder Prefereces > Advanced -- and check the box \[√] show all file extensions.

Start a program you want to test, then use the command:
File > Open
in the programs you wish to test. Sometimes the Open dialog box will give you selectors that allow you to choose "all readable files" rather than the program's own format only.

An unjustifiably large number of documents are created in Microsoft Word, an expensive and inflexible word processor. That would be one to try early on.

Message was edited by: Grant Bennet-Alder

I still don't know what operating system you are actually using on the "newer Mac" so it is hard to provide suggestions.

Conversion is usually a lot easier to a different format using the original program than from an unknown format using a more recent program. There are various conversion tools out there such as Maclink that will convert from one document type to another, with varying degrees of success. It might be a costly investment without having some idea as to the original format.

If you are actually using OSX you could make a copy of the file, add an extension ",txt" onto the end and then try opening the file in Text Edit. It might yield some readable text.

If the old computer is still around wit the suspect applications on it then take the file and see if one of them will open it. Once you know that you can try and find a modern version. I see, for example, that Adobe appears to own Pagemaker 7.

What computer is in the back room? Is it on the Internet?
You may be able to share either the data files, the programs, or both across your office network.

This G5 with 10.3.9: Can it run Classic? Is there an OS 9 system folder available?
System Preferences > 9 - Classic -- wait a quarter minute to see if "System Folder" appears, or wait for the search to complete.

Files that have no filename extensions (used by Windows and OS X, but not by OS 9) and have lost their Type and Creator codes (used by OS 9, but not by Windows or OS X), and are then written to a DOS-formatted disc by OS 9 and copied back to a Mac disc, are usually if not always misidentified by the OS X Finder as Unix executables.

Your company's old files, created in applications that ran in OS 9, probably have never had any filename extensions. Their Type and Creator codes have evidently been lost; those are what OS 9 uses to link the files to the applications that created them. If the files have also been written by OS 9 to any disk or flash drive formatted for Windows, i.e. FAT16 or FAT32, they have also lost their resource forks. The resource fork is a portion of a Mac file that has no analogous structure in a PC file. When a Mac file that contains data in its resource fork is written by OS 9 to a PC-formatted storage device, there's no place in the Windows file structure for that data — so it is simply discarded. When the Mac file is later copied back onto a Mac-formatted storage device, its resource fork is gone along with whatever data it contained, and the file may for all practical purposes be destroyed. OS X handles writing Mac files to Windows-formatted drives more gracefully, but passing files back and forth between OS 9 and OS X via a Windows-formatted storage device is asking for trouble.

I don't know just what practices have been used in moving these files from the Macs they were created on to the one you're trying to open them on now, but I suspect there has been some unwitting demolition in the process.

If copies of these files are still stored on the old Mac on which they were created, and that Mac still works, get on it and double-click the saved copies of the files to open them in the program(s) that created them, and make notes of which application opens each of the files. Be aware that the folder structure containing the files may have to be preserved exactly as it is for the files to open properly — do not reorganize anything. It may be essential, for example, for a PageMaker file to be kept in the same folder as all the individual files that have been "placed" in it using the Place command in PageMaker. If any of those files are moved elsewhere, they may be missing from the PageMaker document when it opens. I've never used Quark or Freehand, so I don't know whether they have the same requirement, or other requirements that are less than obvious.

Any of the old manuals that you're able to open in their original applications can be saved as PDF files using an invaluable OS 9-based "printer driver" called PrintToPDF. They can then be opened in Adobe Reader or Preview on your G5 running OS X, though you won't be able to edit them easily. If you require the ability to edit these files on the G5, rather than on the old computer using the apps that originally created them, you will need first to discover which OS 9-based application created each one, and then ascertain what if any current OS X-based application is able to open the file format used by that old application. In the case of PageMaker files, that will probably be Adobe InDesign or nothing. InDesign may also open old Quark files; I don't know. Aldus or Adobe Freehand files may be openable using Adobe Illustrator. These are just guesses.

Dragging and dropping the files onto MS Word or TextWrangler may reveal, buried somewhere in them, the name of the application(s) that created them. I know a PageMaker file, opened as plain text, will always contain the word "PageMaker". As for other file formats, I'm not sure.

Message was edited by: eww

Message was edited by: eww

hiya,

I know that freehand saves the files as "jpg" "(converted)"

So instead of "txt." change that to "jpg".
It should work, and you find you got a picture. If the size is about 50-100kb (some pix are bigger or smaller) you are on the right track 😉

the "unix executable" is quite common and mostly means it is looking for a program to open the file with. Correctly associated files open with certain programs (e.g. ".psd" should open with photoshop, ".mov" should be quicktime, but realplayer can also open .mov)

Message was edited by: Alexandre

I ran into .exe files at the D-Link website a few years ago: some of their manuals are packaged that way. Dragging them into StuffIt Expander opened them and revealed a PDF. I can't remember whether I had to change the extension from .exe. to .zip or not: check the following link for more info:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20041227030618317