to do this under osx do the following. I will use a user I do this for all the time.
cd /users/kd6cae/downloads ln -s /volumes/4music/Barber He will get a link called Barber in his folder should I decide to put that in there. or cd /users/kd6cae/downloads ln -s "/Volumes/music/3archives/tffp podcasts" He will get a shortcut called tffppodcasts but I can rename that to just podcasts if I wanted to. or cd /users/jholiday/music ln -s "/Volumes/music/5broadcasting/broadcasting_tutorial.mp3" and one more cd ~/dropbox ln -s "~/documents/backups/importent stuff" Note something might have to be done using spaces but since I just paste the path in the cmd prompt it does most of the work for me. This is the way I do this but there might be a better way. I googled and that's how I found to do it through a mac osx hints article. Someone can adapt the command for windows and post it here as I have almost no knowledge on this and I'm willing to learn. Also note I'm putting the path in quotes for hopefully easier reading. Tc and be blessed. On Sep 9, 2012, at 9:29 AM, Gordon Smith <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Martin > > Thanks, I understand now. This is one of those circumstances where spelling > is important, otherwise it can totally mislead, and it did! > > OK, I need to read your post thoroughly, but I also now need to try and dig > up my notes on how to create these links under OS X. > > Thanks for the clarification Martin. > > On 9 Sep 2012, at 13:11, Martin G. McCormick <[email protected]> > wrote: > > What she is talking about is a misspelled form of the > expression "symlink" which is short for "symbolic link." > > I will briefly quote wikipedia after having entered > "symbolic link" from Google: > > Symbolic link > > From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia > > In computing, a symbolic link (also symlink or soft link) is a special > type of file that contains a reference to another file or directory in > the form of an absolute or relative path and that affects pathname > resolution.^[1] Symbolic links were already present by 1978 in > mini-computer operating systems from DEC and Data General's RDOS. Today > they are supported by the POSIX operating-system standard, most > Unix-like operating systems such as FreeBSD, GNU/Linux, and Mac OS X, > and also Windows operating systems such as Windows Vista, Windows 7 and > to some degree in Windows 2000 and Windows XP in the form of Shortcut > files. > > End of quote > > Your Mac's are loaded with them. > > You are free to use symlinks anywhere you might use a > regular file as long as you understand what they are. > > Here is a common example. On your Mac, you have > AppleFileServer. It is normally found in /usr/sbin. Since Apple > may choose to update this file during upgrades or security bug > fixes, and they sure want to keep straight which version they > are dealing with, the actual file on the disk may have a longer > name or a totally different name all together. > > I invoked the terminal on a mac and found some links, > one of which I will list for you as a demonstration. You can do > the same on your Mac's from the terminal window: > > Sun Sep 9 06:31:20 2012 > bash-3.2$ ls -l /usr/sbin/AppleFileServer > lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 79 Nov 19 2010 /usr/sbin/AppleFileServer -> > /System/Library/CoreServices/AppleFileServer.app/Contents/MacOS/AppleFileServer > > In that case, the file has the same name as the link, > but it is located in a rather long path. Tomorrow, Apple might > decide you need a new AppleFileServer and decide it should go in > a different location on your system. This could break lots of > stuff which would then need to be fixed but, instead, Apple just > re-makes the symlink and points it to the new location and > nobody is the wiser. All the software knows that AppleFileServer > is in /usr/sbin and that's all they need to be aware of. > > I have a special file at work containing information > everybody needs to know in my group and everybody has a symlink > in their home directory pointing to this file. If I change that > one file, it's changed for everybody without having to update 15 > or 20 separate files. > > Getting back to something Sarah mentioned, a symlink is > not a copy but more like a nick name. If you trash the actual > file contents, every symlink now points to rubbish, also. If you > have permission to write to a symlink, you also are writing to > the original file because symlinks are nothing more than > alternative locations and names for one and only one version of > a file. > > If you delete the file that symlinks point to, the > symlinks are still there and you will think you can use them, > but when you try, you will get the error of "file not found" or > something similar. > > Anyway, I hope I didn't confuse things even more, but > symlinks are powerful but you must use them with care. > > You can delete a symlink without deleting the original > file so, in that one case, they can protect the actual contents > of a valuable file. > > ======================================= > > The Techno-Chat E-Mail forum is guaranteed malware, spyware, Trojan, virus > and worm-free > > To modify your subscription options, please visit for forum's dedicated web > pages located at > http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/techno-chat > > You can find an archive of all messages posted to the Techno-Chat group at > either of the following websites: > > http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/techno-chat/index.html > > Or: > <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]> > you may also subscribe to this list via RSS. 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