Three different ways to link to files, and two for folders. Which should you use, and how well do they cope with changes in that volume?
aliases
Four little utilities now compatible with macOS Tahoes, covering repair of Finder aliases, creating test sparse files and checking special file types, looking up UTI types, and analysing language.
Distinguishing conventional copies, clone files, symlinks, hard links and Finder aliases can be confusing. Here’s how to tell them apart with using Terminal.
Adding your own custom icons to files and folders goes back a long way, to Classic Mac OS […]
Symlinks are popular but prove fragile when folders get renamed or moved. Hard links don’t support directories and can’t cross volumes. The alias works best overall, but isn’t supported in Terminal.
Introduced in System 7 in 1991, long before symbolic and hard links became available in Mac OS X, they’ve been revised and extended to bookmarks since.
What is that text-encoded data embedded in so many Property Lists? Most are Bookmarks, and here’s how to decode them.
How does macOS track Recent items for apps? In a property list, using a Base-64 encoded Bookmark. Here’s how to decode, resolve and discover their contents.
Similarities and differences, how to make each in the Finder and Terminal, how much space they use, and how they work in APFS.
The Finder is happy to create aliases to most files and folders, provided they aren’t immediately inside a bundle or package. Then it gets all fussy. But why?
The Eclectic Light Company 