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Use symbolic links in a Dropbox folder
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_link Basically, with a hard link, the same file data exists in two places at once. So ~/Documents/myfile.txt and ~/Dropbox/myfile.txt are both names for the same data; editing ~/Documents/myfile.txt will instantly change the data in ~/Dropbox/myfile.txt too, because it is the same data. Hard links work perfectly 100% of the time for all operations, even if you move or rename files, but can only be used within a single filesystem (you can't make a hard link to a file on another disk), and cannot be used for folders. A symlink is a small file that redirects to another file or folder. When you try to open/copy/delete/whatever a symlink, your actions simply get sent to the path that the symlink points to and applied to whatever is found there. Symlinks can point to files and folders, can point to items on other disks, and work for almost all operations. But they are pretty dumb; if you move or rename the file that the symlink points to, the symlink will be broken, because it now points to nothing. An alias is a pointer (like a symlink). It is able to point to files, folders, other computers on network, and more. An alias is usually able to find its target even if the target moves or is renamed, which makes aliases much more robust than symlinks. However, aliases are Mac specific (they were invented for use by the Finder) and don't usually work with low-level operations (e.g. UNIX command line programs). Dropbox uses various low-level operations to do its magic, and so it can't follow aliases. Putting an alias file into your Dropbox folder will result only in the alias file itself getting uploaded to Dropbox.
Use symbolic links in a Dropbox folder
Thank you, Sesquipedalian, for taking the time to explain the difference. Your explanation is clearer than the general information found at other places, particularly with aliases in OS X.
I created a folder on Dropbox that contains (1) an Excel spreadsheet that keeps track of my students' grades and (2) other course-related folders and files. Then, on my home Mac and on my work Mac, I created an alias on the Desktop that points to the folder on Dropbox. This way, if I changed data in the spreadsheet, for example, while at work, then when I return home and access the spreadsheet from the folder alias on the Desktop, the updated spreadsheet is there. That is, the originals always reside on Dropbox. This use of aliases is the reverse of what you warned me about in your last paragraph. But, this is OK, isn't it? Or, does it have a potential for issues?
Use symbolic links in a Dropbox folder
The alias will only work on the Mac you created the alias on. On another computer linked to your Dropbox account, the alias file will copy to your Dropbox, but will be useless. Symlinks are covered in the Dropbox documentation as the way to achieve what we're talking about here. While this hint is great and very well written, I would recommend that everyone who is interested in working with symlinks and Dropbox to just check out the Dropbox documentation.
Use symbolic links in a Dropbox folder
There's a subtle point that, once you understand it, makes symlinks much more useful in Dropbox. ---
-- Jerry |
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