macosfindershell-namespace-extension

Does MacOS have any API equivalent to Windows's "Shell Namespaces" that allow browsing directly in the Finder of non-filesystem tree structures?


Windows has had a concept of "Shell Namespaces" ¹ ² ³ for about 20 years now that allows developers to add support for interacting with things in the File Explorer that have tree structures but that do not need to part of the OS's official filesystem.

For example, you could make one for FTP, for Zip and other archive types, etc.

I can't seem to find by Googling what the MacOS equivalent is, or if it simply lacks an equivalent altogether.


Solution

  • No, there is no direct equivalent to this functionality in macOS.

    FUSE can be used to expose remote or virtual filesystems as drives, but it is not a standard component of the operating system.