Sep 12, '02 09:09:03AM • Contributed by: kolakowski
I started by moving to /Applications in the Finder and created aliases to several places. The Utilities directory is too far down to be helpful if you have a lot of apps, so I made an alias (option-cmd) to Utilities and renamed the alias "1Utilities".
Oddity #1 - Unix does not know about what a Finder alias is supposed to behave like.
- In the Finder make a folder called TEST
- Select the folder and make an alias (cmd-L) creating "TEST alias".
- In the Terminal, look at the file listing:
bash2.05a lfk@localhost ~ % ls -ld TEST*
drwxr-xr-x 2 lfk staff 68 Sep 10 12:32 TEST
-rw-r--r-- 1 lfk staff 0 Sep 10 12:32 TEST alias
bash2.05a % cd TEST ;
bash2.05a TEST % cd ../TEST\ alias
bash: cd: ../TEST alias: Not a directory
- In the Finder drag "TEST alias" to the Trash
- In the Terminal create a symlink to TEST (note you cannot hard link directories (Folders)
- Check the behavior of the Symlink
bash2.05a % ln -s TEST "TEST alias"
All is fine with the world.
bash2.05a % ls -ld TEST*
drwxr-xr-x 2 lfk staff 68 Sep 10 12:32 TEST
lrwxr-xr-x 1 lfk staff 4 Sep 10 12:45 TEST alias -> TEST
bash2.05a % cd TEST
bash2.05a TEST % cd ../TEST\ alias
bash2.05a TEST alias %
- In the Finder in column mode look at "TEST alias" and TEST. They are both there, "TEST alias" looks like a Finder-type alias, and it has an arrow allowing you to move into the Folder.
- Switch to the list mode, TEST has an arrow allowing the Folder to toggled open, but "TEST alias", just like Finder aliases, does not.
- In the Icon mode it looks like an alias to a Folder.
- If you drag a file into "TEST alias", when it automatically opens up, the target is TEST (not like unix where it is "TEST alias"
bash2.05a /Applications % ls -ld * | head -6P.S. While writing this hint, I noticed the following non-UNIX (but good behavior in the shell - bash). I use completion (TAB) a lot, but with all the spaces in names, it is not as helpful. But if you type a double-quote and then TAB, the shell will complete the filename including spaces, and put a second double-quote at the end. Cool! I don't remember this working like this in 10.1.5.
lrwxrwxr-x 1 root admin 23 Sep 10 11:37 1Utilities -> /Applications/Utilities
drwxrwxr-x 18 root admin 612 Sep 10 11:37 2NonA_Utilities
drwxrwxr-x 9 root admin 306 Aug 20 11:03 3CocoaUnix
lrwxrwxr-x 1 root admin 3 Sep 10 11:37 4Fink -> /sw
lrwxrwxr-x 1 root admin 10 Sep 10 11:37 5UsrLocal -> /usr/local
drwxrwxr-x 4 root admin 136 Aug 28 22:53 Acrobat Reader 5.0
