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chama98

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 13, 2014
359
202
London
I have an unsusal folder which has appeared since installing the 1st public beta. What am I supposed to do with it? Is it for the OS? Can it be deleted? Or hidden? if so how?

Thanks.

Untitled.jpg
 
Ah, vestiges of *nix (Unix, Linux, BSD, etc., even VMS) operating systems. The "/usr" directory contains many local and shared resources for all users, such as libraries, binaries, X11 resources, etc. including some things you might use such as "zip" compression. Do not delete this directory! (You may be sorry if you do, as then some utilities will not function properly.)
 
Everyone seems to be missing the point... Yes, it's normal to have a 'usr' folder, BUT it's usually a hidden system folder. At least it has been that way before Ventura. This sounds like a bug to me.

You could try running the following command in Terminal to hide it, but I suspect the operation will not be permitted.
sudo chflags hidden /usr
 
Last edited:
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Hi iStorm ... this could be a bug, as you say. Was /usr really hidden in previous macOS versions? If so, then you can most likely just manually "hide" the directory once again.
 
Hi iStorm ... this could be a bug, as you say. Was /usr really hidden in previous macOS versions? If so, then you can most likely just manually "hide" the directory once again.
Yes, it didn't show in previous versions. I'm currently on Monterey and only see the first four folders seen in the OP's screenshot. I recall it being the same in Big Sur and earlier as well.

Just for giggles, I tried unhiding it and it says "Operation not permitted"...which is why I suspect it can't be hidden either. With the security changes Apple has done to macOS over the past few years, it's nearly impossible to mess with system folders these days.
 
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It's a beta system. Bugs can be expected from time to time. Those bugs might show as visual oddities. Very possible that, as we move deeper into the beta, a usually-hidden folder might disappear again. Ignore the folder.
Even if you should choose to delete that folder (I suggest that you should not do that), looks like it is probably in the read-only part of the system, and you will likely find that you cannot remove it (as it is needed by the system). The likely read-only status of that part of the system probably will block even changing the visible status of that folder
 
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Everyone seems to be missing the point... Yes, it's normal to have a 'usr' folder, BUT it's usually a hidden system folder. At least it has been that way before Ventura. This sounds like a bug to me.

You could try running the following command in Terminal to hide it, but I suspect the operation will not be permitted.
sudo chflags hidden /usr
i don't think anyone's missing the point. yes, it's usually hidden. but i've seen it occasionally in previous betas. if it's there, leave it there. apple will sort it out down the line, and it will vanish once again to the land of hidden files...
 
i don't think anyone's missing the point. yes, it's usually hidden. but i've seen it occasionally in previous betas. if it's there, leave it there. apple will sort it out down the line, and it will vanish once again to the land of hidden files...

I always like to see the "hidden files."
 
Adding Apple's "hidden" flag to a user directory I would hope would not change how the libraries and binaries within that directory are executed, but I think that iStorm and DeltaMac are correct in that /usr is now part of the restricted system filesystem so that nothing can be modified. For instance, neither "sudo su" nor "login root" would allow the hidden flag to be added to the usr directory. The /usr directory has the "com.apple.rootless" extended attribute.
 
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