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From: philip@pescadero.Stanford.EDU (Philip Machanick)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system
Subject: Re: Alias resolution: right or wrong?
Message-ID: <1991May31.170319.1179@neon.Stanford.EDU>
Date: 31 May 91 17:03:19 GMT
References: <1991May29.202307.3024@dartvax.dartmouth.edu> <48263@bcsaic.UUCP>
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Reply-To: philip@pescadero.stanford.edu
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In article <48263@bcsaic.UUCP>, lbaum@bcsaic.UUCP (Larry Baum) writes:
|> In article <1991May29.202307.3024@dartvax.dartmouth.edu> Eric.J.Baumgartner@dartmouth.edu (Eric J. Baumgartner) writes:
|> : I had a file, call it Foo, in folder Bar.  I made an alias of Foo
|> : called Foo.alias.  Then I wanted to back up Foo, so I dragged Foo from
|> : Bar into a folder called Bar.Backup.  Yup, forgot to hold down the
|> : option key... damn!  So now Foo is in Bar.Backup.  OK, no problem.  I
|> : option-drag Foo back into Bar.  So now: original Foo is in Bar.Backup,
|> : copy of Foo (also called Foo) is in Bar.
|> : 
|> : OK, time to panic... almost forgot about the alias!!  I get info on
|> : Foo.alias, ask it to find the original file, and it pulls up... the
|> : copy of Foo in folder Bar!
|> : 
|> : Well, I guess this was what I wanted (it corrected my mistake :-), but
|> : I don't think this is right.  What do you all think?

It doesn't seem right to me. Try this: delete the copy in Bar.
Now, Get Info can't find it. Next: move the copy from Bar.Backup
to Bar and try it again. Now it does find it - even if the "backup"
copy has been changed. It seems the name is good enough. Can anyone
explain the semantics of this and why it isn't going to land someone
in trouble?
|> This behavior seems ok, but the real issue is what happens if
|> you do this:
|> 
|> create Foo in folder Bar
|> create Foo.alias
|> move (not copy) Foo into folder Bar.Backup
|> 
|> Now where does Foo.alias point?  If it still points to Bar,
|> that would be bad.

In this case, it does what you'd expect - the alias "moves".
-- 
Philip Machanick
philip@pescadero.stanford.edu