Sierra: Info file size display inconsistent

Originator:designatednerd
Number:rdar://32576416 Date Originated:6/5/2017
Status:Closed Resolved:Behaves As Intended
Product:macOS Product Version:10.12.5
Classification:Other Bug Reproducible:Always
 
Summary:
When going to /Applications  and invoking command-i on a version of Xcode, the size in the top right bit of the info window seems to correlate properly with how many bytes are in the application as reported by the Size line in the General section, but the parenthetical size next to that byte size is off by anywhere from a fraction of a meg to multiple gigs.

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Use Finder to navigate to /Applications
2. Select a version of Xcode (it is one of the worst offenders)
3. Invoke command-I to show the info window
4. Wonder why the bit in the top right corner is more consistent with the size in bytes than the number next to the size in bytes 

Expected Results:
App size should be displayed consistently within the Info window, and should be directly related to the size of the bytes of the application. 

Actual Results:
See screenshots in “lol_wat.zip” [OR note: These screenshots: https://twitter.com/designatednerd/status/871861438062542848] for an example. I will note that this is not consistently this bad - some apps are off by about half a meg, some are off by multiple gigs. Seems like Xcode is the worst offender. 

Regression:
I don’t remember seeing this before today, but I’m not sure when the last time I saw expected behavior was. 

Notes:
Regular Xcode in the example screenshot installed via the Mac App Store, Xcode-beta installed directly via downloaded .xip. I have not restarted my laptop since installing the downloaded .xip.

Comments

And filed http://openradar.appspot.com/radar?id=6129269797289984 to request a clearer distinction, because I can't help myself.

By designatednerd at June 22, 2017, 12:40 p.m. (reply...)

From Apple: 

Engineering has determined that this issue behaves as intended based on the following information: 

The two values in the size: section is for logical size (how big is it?), and physical size (how much space does it consume on disk)

These two values can be vastly different, hence showing the two values.
Xcode is the worst case, since it contains hard links inside the app bundle, causing the logical size to nearly double the physical.

Would be nice if they actually made that distinction clearer, but at least that makes more sense.

By designatednerd at June 22, 2017, 12:25 p.m. (reply...)

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