Hi, I am working on a project which requires me to understand the internals of a Desktop Database on a CD. I have a few questions in this regard. Any leads which can be provided would be of great help.

How does the Mac recognise the presence of a Desktop Database?

What are the required files, flags and structures that tell the Mac that there is a Desktop Database on the HFS Volume CD it is reading. And what are the routines used to write into these files, flags and structures. Is there documentation on the structure and layout of the Desktop Database(Both Desktop DB and DF files). Are there any other files which are required by the Finder to read from the Desktop Database. Does the Volume header have any information regarding the presence, size and contents of a DTDB?

What happens when the user copies documents from the CD onto the hard disk?

In case it is an application, the Finder updates the DTDB with the information available from the resources. And we are able to see the corresponding icon displayed properly. What happens incase of user-defined files (not files which have custom icons) whose information we store in the DTDB of the CD. When the file is viewed on the CD the Finder displays the icon from the DTDB of the CD, but what happens when the user copies it onto the hard disk? Is the information on the DTDB of the CD for that file(not application) transferred to the hard disk of the Mac.