How did I do that(App alias)

B

bbolin

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Some time ago I created a folder on my desktop called "App alias". It has a little arrow in the bottom left corner. It is an alias directory to the applications in "Macintosh HD". I can double click on it and all my applications are there.

I was going to create the same for my Home directory (/Users/my_user_name) but could not figure out how to do this from the GUI interface.

Interesting when looking at "App alias" from a shell that it isn't a symbolic link. How does it work?.

Manual created what I wanted to do from a shell -
ln -s /Users/my_user_name /Users/my_user_name/Desktop/Home

That worked all fine and dandy and even created the folder with the icon listed in Macintosh HD.

How does this work without any kind of symbolic link ?

How can I create links/shortcuts/alias from the GUI interface like this ?

Thanks.
 
To make an alias, you can select the icon, then do a File -> Make Alias, control click -> Make Alias, or command-L.
 
I had the same problem. I could make aliases to certain apps/directories/files but not to others. The "Alias" context menu option is grey, disabled.
Trick: look for an alias you already have somewhere; select "Make alias" from the context menu; now you have an alias to a file you do not care about; select "Get Info" and "Select new original". From there select what you want the alias to point to.
This seems to be one of the things about MacOS X that had better be fixed...
 
Just do it from the command line.

It's been a while since I've fired up the old Mac. Lots of Linux stuff in the works.

As far as being able to determine if it was a link, it was most likely a hard link and not a soft link

ln file file
ln -s file file
 
Well, as long as the thread is current again...

The easiest (IMO) way to make an alias is to hold down Command and Option while you drag the file. This lets you create the alias in any folder, not just the folder where the original resides. This is necessary when dealing with folders you don't have write access to.

Aliases are not the same as symbolic links or hard links. They are more like symbolic links in that they are references to separate files, but the mechanism used is quite different. Aliases originate from the classic Mac OS, while symbolic links come from the Unix side. Symbolic links rely entirely on path names, which means if you move or rename the original, the symbolic link will no longer work. Aliases use several different methods to locate the original file, and allow you to move or rename it.
 
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