[hudson1]

I'm hoping someone can set me straight on a confusing issue. I don't understand how aliases and symbolic links work opposite each other. I don't have any formal UNIX training and I'm sure that adds to my ignorance. I boiled down my confusion to a few brief questions. If anyone cares to answer these, I'm sure I'll know many times what I currently do.

1) How are symbolic links and aliases fundamentally different?

2) Why does OS X need/use both of these types of links?

3) Where does one use one type of link versus the other?

4) Is Apple planning on adding a GUI tool for creating symbolic links, or, might they be planning to merge these two types of links into a single link?

Thanks!

[Diggory Laycock]

http://developer.apple.com/documenta...s/Aliases.html

[hudson1]

Thanks for the link. I must not be understanding Apple's explanations correctly, though. When I read it, I come away with the impression that symbolic links are no longer needed because aliases are now using the pathway-first mode that symbolic links use (assuming 10.2 or later). If this was the case, then resorting to the Terminal to make symbolic links wouldn't be necessary and as we know, this isn't the case -- such as the sym link used to fix the 10.3.2 slow startup bug. What am I missing, if you don't mind?

[Brass]

Originally posted by hudson1:
Thanks for the link. I must not be understanding Apple's explanations correctly, though. When I read it, I come away with the impression that symbolic links are no longer needed because aliases are now using the pathway-first mode that symbolic links use (assuming 10.2 or later). If this was the case, then resorting to the Terminal to make symbolic links wouldn't be necessary and as we know, this isn't the case -- such as the sym link used to fix the 10.3.2 slow startup bug. What am I missing, if you don't mind?

Symbolic links are still needed. If you move (or rename a file), that breaks a symbolic link, but not an alias. Sometimes you want to be able to move a file temporarily to temporarily stop a symbolic link. You cannot do this with an alias.

Additionally, aliases are not understood at the basic unix command line level (and therefore by any utility that uses such tools). I think Apple are planning to change this, but it is a fairly fundamental change, because no other unix has aliases... only symbolic links and hard links.

In most other cases an alias is better than a symbolic link, because the file can be moved without breaking the link.