Mac Resource Fork file format

.rsrc · metadata sidecar (legacy Mac) · introduced 1984 by Apple

What is a Mac Resource Fork file?

Resource forks are the classic Mac OS sidecar containing dialog layouts, menus, icons, sounds, and code resources for an application. They survived into modern macOS as extended attributes (xattrs); the ZIP and TAR you download from a Mac can hide ._filename AppleDouble files containing the original resource fork data.

Most readers reach this page after double-clicking a .rsrc file and finding their operating system unsure what to do with it. The good news: Mac Resource Fork is a well-understood format with mature tooling on every major platform. It is supported in one click by mainstream archivers on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

How to extract a Mac Resource Fork file

Opening a .rsrc file is straightforward on every modern operating system. The exact steps depend on which platform you are on:

On Windows

Locate the .rsrc file in File Explorer.
Right-click the file. If you have 7-Zip installed, choose 7-Zip → Extract Here. On Windows 11 the built-in extractor handles ZIP, 7z, RAR and several other formats directly through Extract All…
If prompted, pick a destination folder and click Extract.
The extracted files appear in a folder next to the original archive.

On macOS

Find the .rsrc file in Finder.
Install The Unarchiver from the Mac App Store, or Keka for both creating and extracting.
Right-click the file → Open With → The Unarchiver (or just double-click after Unarchiver is set as the default).
The extracted folder appears next to the archive.

On Linux

Use your file manager: right-click the archive → Extract Here (file-roller on GNOME, Ark on KDE).

On the command line, run one of:

7z x archive.rsrc    # works for almost any format

The files appear in the current directory.

How to create a Mac Resource Fork file

To pack files into a .rsrc archive, you typically need an archiver that supports writing this format. Not every tool can create every format — for example, only WinRAR can create real RAR files. The sidebar lists the software known to read and write Mac Resource Fork.

On the command line, the canonical create command is:

# Use 7-Zip, PeaZip, or the format's reference tool to create .rsrc files.

If you regularly create archives at scale, a dedicated archive automation suite can wrap this command in scheduled jobs, integrity checks, and offsite replication.

Strengths

Powerful resource model in classic Mac OS

Weaknesses and limitations

Effectively obsolete
AppleDouble files clutter cross-platform archives

Typical use cases

Classic Mac applications
Cross-platform Mac file transport (AppleDouble)

Technical details

Mac Resource Fork uses the None algorithm and is identified on disk by the magic byte sequence (varies). The standard MIME type is application/x-rsrc. The format is an open specification and is free for any use.

Frequently asked questions

Is Mac Resource Fork safe to open?

Archive files are containers — they are only as safe as what they contain. A .rsrc from a trusted source is fine; one received from a stranger can hold malicious executables, scripts, or files engineered to exploit bugs in your archiver. Always keep your archiver updated, and never run unknown executables that come out of an archive. A safe workflow is to extract into a sandbox and scan the contents before opening anything.

What is the maximum file size?

Modern implementations support archives in the multi-terabyte range. The practical limit is your filesystem (FAT32 caps at 4 GB; ext4, NTFS, APFS, and exFAT all comfortably handle multi-TB files).

Can I password-protect a Mac Resource Fork?

Some archivers can wrap Mac Resource Fork files in an encrypted container, but the format itself does not always include built-in encryption. Check your archiver's documentation.

How does Mac Resource Fork compare to other formats?

See our format comparison pages such as ZIP vs 7z, ZIP vs RAR, and tar.gz vs tar.xz for side-by-side feature tables.