We're researching the issue and will provide more information as it becomes available.įinding files using Find Yesterday we covered a limitation of OS X's Find command/dialog where certain system-level and Unix directories are not searched by default. Our only guess right now - and this is pure speculation until we get more details - is that Mac OS X's authentication system for the Finder causes symbolic links to be handled in a manner other than the Finder's usual behavior. Clearly the problem being discussed is a Finder/authentication issue, not a Unix issue.) Second, deleting a link in Unix (hard or symbolic) should never affect the original file. Symbolic links and deleting with authentication Now that we've clarified the way aliases work in terms of "deletion" utilities, we're still left with the question raised Monday: Why does deleting a symbolic link (which is similar to a Mac OS alias) while authenticated in the Finder delete the original instead? (For those who have speculated that this is somehow related to Unix commands, there are two things that cast doubt on that theory: First, the Finder doesn't use Unix commands to perform functions such as moving files to the Trash it has its own File Manager APIs. This may not be expected behavior for the end user, but it makes sense from a technical point of view, and is consistent behavior for aliases. It logically follows, then, that if you drag an alias to a file onto a file deletion utility, the target of the alias - the original file - is deleted instead, since to the Mac OS, you're attempting to "open" the file (not the alias) with that utility. When you drag an alias onto an application, the OS behaves as if you dragged the target of the alias onto the application this is why dragging an alias of a text document onto TextEdit opens the target of the alias in TextEdit. The behavior described in yesterday's story, with respect to file deletion utilities, is indeed "expected" behavior according to Apple, and has been since the Mac OS first included the ability to create aliases. To be clear, this is a different issue from the one described in Monday's report, whereby moving a symbolic link to the Trash via the Finder's authentication dialog (for example, if you normally don't have permission to move/delete the file) would actually move the target of the link to the Trash. Symbolic links and utilities that delete files Yesterday (Tuesdsay) we covered a report by a reader who described "unexpected" behavior when using a deletion utility to delete a symbolic link - the target was deleted instead.
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