Submit Hint Search The Forums LinksStatsPollsHeadlinesRSS
14,000 hints and counting!

Force installers to follow symbolic links System
Normally, the installer will overwrite symbolic links (for instance, if you've stored your applications elsewhere but created an Applications symbolic link at the top of your hard drive). In 10.2, I've heard that it's possible to force the installer to follow symlinks with:
 % defaults write com.apple.installer FollowLinks -boolean true
[Editor's note: Can anyone confirm that installers will follow symbolic links when this default is set? At this point, I'd have to call this an unconfirmed hint, as I have no idea if it works or not...]
    •    
  • Currently 0.00 / 5
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  (0 votes cast)
 
[6,990 views]  

Force installers to follow symbolic links | 7 comments | Create New Account
Click here to return to the 'Force installers to follow symbolic links' hint
The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
Thank you!!!! It works!
Authored by: urcindalo on Dec 10, '02 11:05:17AM

Yeah!! It works!!

I happen to have my /sw directory mounted on its own partition through fstab. Inside that partition, I also have a /usr/local/ subfolder (/sw/usr/local/).

My /usr/local is a symlink to /sw/usr/local. I've just installed the latest gimp-print (4.2.5-pre1), and it hasn't overwritten my symlink, as it used to happen whenever I installed a gimp-print package.

I've been praying for this hint for a loooong time.

Thank you.



[ Reply to This | # ]
Why isn't this the default?
Authored by: brettmjohnson on Dec 10, '02 02:21:28PM

<RANT>
Why should we have to do this? I can't think of any good reason why an installer should blow away existing symlinks. And why doesn't the BSD layer interperate MacOS "shortcuts" as symlinks as well? I'm sick of all my Unix apps failing if I accidently used the Finder to create a link rather than ln. Why can't we configure the Finder to create real symlinks instead of "shortcuts".
<\RANT>



[ Reply to This | # ]
Why isn't this the default?
Authored by: tetsuotheironman on Dec 10, '02 02:59:31PM

my understanding is that the unix 'ln -s' is a link that is pretty much file system independent, but the MacOS 'alias' is a feature of the hfs+ filesystem, I'm guessing somewhat more akin to just using 'ln'. This isn't an excuse for why it doesn't work, but this is the way I understand it.. If I am incorrect someone please point out my err and I am curious to understand this anomaly.



[ Reply to This | # ]
Why isn't this the default?
Authored by: xSmurf on Dec 10, '02 03:21:00PM

An easy difference I can actually see from a shortcut to a ln -s would be that with a shortcut if you change the traget's icon the shortcut's will get updated to!



[ Reply to This | # ]
Why isn't this the default?
Authored by: vonleigh on Dec 11, '02 12:58:37AM

An alias behaves both like a soft and hard link. First it checks the location where the original should be, and if it's not found, it looks for the item using it's unique number (inode is it?).

Personally, I really think they should fix it so aliases are followed on the unix side. It's really a pain in the butt to have them be incompatible.

Do a quick experiment so you can see:

In your home (~/) make a folder called "test". Put something in said folder, say "stuff": so you end up with ~/test/stuff. Now make an alias to the test folder. Open that alias "test alias" and it will show you "stuff".

Now do the following, move your "test" folder to another location (say the desktop), then create a new folder called "test" in your original location. So now you're going to have ~/Desktop/test/stuff and a new test folder (that's empty) at ~/test

If you open the "test alias" it will open the new test folder. You know it's the new folder because it doesn't show you "stuff". Now if you eliminate this new emtpy "test" folder, it will properly open your test folder that's on the desktop (that contains "stuff).


v



[ Reply to This | # ]
run as root also!
Authored by: semios on Dec 10, '02 05:07:20PM
It would probably be a good idea to run this as root also, since a lot of installers need root permissions and *might* use root's preferences:
sudo defaults write com.apple.installer FollowLinks -boolean true


[ Reply to This | # ]
Somebody tell Scott Anguish
Authored by: mithras on Dec 10, '02 05:51:42PM
He can relax now. (if you didn't know, he wrote a series of increasingly hysterical articles and mailing list posts about this problem.)

[ Reply to This | # ]