Touvaly

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Touvaly is a drop utility for making pseudo copies of files, folders, CD's and volumes. A pseudo copy of a file is a file with all the same attributes as the original file (creation date, modification date, type, creator, name, etc.) but with empty contents. You can use Touvaly to create virtual catalogues of collections of files which use very little space.

You can create these collections on other drives so that they are accessible from other machines. Select the option to make pseudo files "openable" using Touvaly and when you double click them the actual file will be opened in the proper application. (Shared volumes will be automatically opened by the Mac.)

How to use

Launch the program and the status window displays:

Drag a folder, CD or volume on top of the Touvaly application icon in the Finder or the main window:

Touvaly then prompts you to navigate to the destination of the pseudo copy (unless you set a destination in Preferences.)After you choose the destination Touvaly immediately begins to traverse the folder creating pseudo copies of all the files it finds.

First Touvaly counts all the files in the folder so that it knows how to display progress (counting is usually much faster than the remaining processing.)

Then it collects the files for processing, i.e. it makes a record of where the file is:

Finally, pseudo-copies of all the files that have been collected are made:

Preferences

Sampling of options available:

Only copy plain folders. Only copy plain folders and do not copy files, packages, applications, etc.
Don't copy applications. Don't copy applications, but do copy files, folders and other packages (bundles, plugin's, frameworks, etc.)
Make pseudo files openable. Select this option to have Touvaly open the original file when you double click the pseudo file (or drop it on Touvaly.)
Copy resource fork. Preserve the resource fork of the file (useful for preserving custom icons.) Note that this will increase the size of the pseudo copy.
Size threshold. Touvaly will not create pseudo copies of files whose size in bytes is less than this value. A real copy of the file will be made instead. Set to 0 or leave blank to turn this feature off.
Copy Finder comments. Copy all file and folder comments.
Append original file size to the Finder comment. Append the original file size, in bytes, to the comment of the pseudo file.
Quit when done. Touvaly will quit itself automatically when the copy is complete.
Check for updates. Check for software updates on program launch.
Log to console. Touvaly will log entries to a console log file detailing its progress.
Verbose. Log more details than plain console logging.
Copy to. Turn on a default destination for the copy.
Throttle. Controls the rate of processing at the expense of UI responsiveness.