Lossy copying
Finder does a good job of preserving data and metadata.
If you find yourself using an environment that's not wholly compatible (some FTP servers fall into this category), then you may prefer to use something other than Finder.
However: please be aware that using applications other than Finder, to move or copy data, may lead to loss of metadata and/or extended attributes including but not limited to:
- access control lists (ACLs)
- Spotlight comments
- file-specific application bindings
- color labels
- icon positioning
- custom icons.
muCommander: a cross-platform file manager
Environments that are not wholly compatible with Finder may be friendlier to muCommander.
http://www.mucommander.com/
copy or move from fork-aware system: forked data is lost
BlueHarvest
allows you to keep your disks and servers free of Mac "trails"
http://zeroonetwenty.com/blueharvest/
the cp command
In Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) the options for cp include:
-X Do not copy Extended Attributes (EAs) or resource forks.
