They’re Base-64 encoded data which is related to the Finder Alias. Here’s how to resolve them in an app, at the command line, and in code.
aliases
How can you refer to an important file or directory, no matter where it’s moved on a volume, even when it’s renamed?
A quick tour of this unique utility, and a recommended update for it which brings control over text size, auto-updates, and more.
New version should address long delays in checking old Finder Alias files.
How can you check all your old Finder Aliases to see which are broken and, more importantly, which are in danger of breaking?
Use Finder aliases at the command line, compare extended attributes of two files, and normalise Unicode strings.
A minor but worthwhile upgrade to this utility which provides bookmarks and aliases, reveals inode numbers, and much more.
How can the Open Recent menu offer to open a document that no longer exists when the volume it was on is no longer mounted?
So resolving an Alias doesn’t always update data in the Alias file, even though it returns the correct path when possible. This is becoming a mess.
Links – hard links, symlinks, and Finder Aliases – are the most complex and confusing of simple concepts in computing. Do they get any better after research?
