This setup could allow the /private folder to be mounted from another disk or file share separate from the rest of the system. Note: The reason for this is historical and goes back to NeXTStep. etc, /tmp and /var are standard directories for certain kinds of files in Unix systems, but in this case these directories are actually located in /private. Symbolic links are redirections to other files or directories. Symbolic links are identified by the first character l on a long ls. When you get a detailed list of the file system root / you will see a few interesting entries: (output abbreviated) $ ls -l 1 root wheel etc -> 1 root wheel tmp -> 1 root wheel var -> private/var
#Symbolic linker osx full#
I love the fact that macOS has full Unix underpinnings that gives me amazing capabilities and powerful commands at my disposal.If you like this series and want to learn Terminal and the shell on macOS in more detail, get my book “ macOS Terminal and Shell“ Symbolic Links Using multiple disks at once does increase complexity but it also increases efficiency and data access speeds when using multiple resources. I have successfully moved my Downloads, my Documents, my iTunes backups etc… to a separate larger disk drive.
Now we make the symbolic link by entering ln -s /Volumes/Drobo/Downloads Downloads again substituting your own new location for "/Volumes/Drobo/Downloads".Once you're certain the copy was successful, you can delete the original "Downloads" folder by typing sudo rm -rf.You can alternatively use "Finder" to copy the files over as well. You need to replace the "/Volumes/Drobo" with what ever name you gave to the new location. to copy the entire directory to the new location. I don't already have a directory called "Downloads" on my new disk drive so we run the command cp -a Downloads/ /Volumes/Drobo/. I want to move the "Downloads" folder so I need to move the data that is already in the directory to the new location.Type du -sh * to see how much data is being stored in each directory and file in your home directory. Type pwd to make certain you are in your "Home" directory,.These steps can be replicated for any file or folder you need to link to or from.
#Symbolic linker osx how to#
In this example, I'll be showing how to link your default "Downloads" folder to a second disk drive for data storage. If typing out commands is not your thing turn back now! For the rest of you brave souls, carry on! You'll now need to get your hands dirty and use the terminal on macOS. If you have a workstation type environment that does its daily grinding in one place, then these suggestions are best suited for you. If you have a notebook that you are constantly bringing with you and disconnecting external storage, well, then when it comes time to get access to your data, you're disk will be missing and you won't be able to access it. I'll be using an external disk drive enclosure called a Drobo that will be connected at all times for example. Best use case is the desktop environmentĪlthough you can perform these changes on any Mac, it would be best practice to do it on a machine that stays put on a desk.
Creating a bad link for an essential folder like /lib or something critical can cause your system to become inoperable. Whenever you start playing around with the underlying operating system you run the risk of severely breaking things. The end result is that you have essentially load balanced your data across multiple drives without need of informing any specific application. The way this helps us is that by having a file or folder on Disk A pointing to a linked location on Disk B, we can "trick" the operating system to think that we are accessing a file on Disk A while in fact the file lives on Disk B. Be it on the same filesystem or other disk drive or network location. How a link ``points'' to a file is one of the differences between a hard and symbolic link."Ī symbolic link will redirect any access to its location to the linked counterpart elsewhere. There are two types of links hard links and symbolic links. It is useful for maintaining multiple copies of a file in many places at once without using up storage for the copies'' instead, a linkpoints'' to the original copy. "The ln utility creates a new directory entry (linked file) which has the same modes as the original file.
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