Re: Mac OS alias from Perl
For the traditional method if you can't find a module or common method just use the quote below the tilde, ie `ln -s /path/to/my/interest / path/to/my/alias`, note if this will run in a cron, you will have to give the full path ot ln, just do a whereis ln command (mine and yours should be in /bin. Dave On Dec 8, 2007, at 7:19 PM, Chris Devers wrote: On Dec 8, 2007, at 7:06 PM, Celeste Suliin Burris [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Use a symbolic link instead. Perl handles those natively, and they can be accessed from the command line. The Finder just treats them the same as aliases. Not quite. I forget the details at the moment, but Finder aliases are kind of like firm links: while hardlinks point to inodes, and softlinks point to file pathnames, aliases point to the logical file in a more robust way than symlinks. For example, if the reverent file moves, symlinks break, but aliases shouldn't. If you really want aliases, I think the CPAN modules of Dan Kogai and Chris Nandor are the place to start. I forget who wrote what, but modules like (I think) MacOS::File and Mac::Glue can either make the right calls directly, or leverage Applescript / OSAscript to do this for you. Or if symlinks/softlinks are enough, just use the traditional Perl / Unix methods to make those. -- Chris Devers
Re: Mac OS alias from Perl
At 19:01 -0500 8/12/07, Dan Neville wrote: Does anyone know how to make a Mac OS alias in Perl? So, I wish to have Perl create aliases in multiple directories rather than copy the original file. There actually is no API call to create an alias file. You can do it in Perl as described at http://use.perl.org/~pudge/journal/10437 Alternatively, you can make a new alias via AppleScripting the Finder as: set thaAlias to Harddisk:Users:peter:thefile.cpp as alias tell application Finder set f to make new alias file at desktop to thaAlias end tell f Which will return the alias file created. Enjoy, Peter. -- Keyboard Maestro http://www.keyboardmaestro.com/ Macros for your Mac http://www.stairways.com/ http://download.stairways.com/
Re: Mac OS alias from Perl
At 20:11 +0900 12/9/07, Peter N Lewis wrote: At 19:01 -0500 8/12/07, Dan Neville wrote: Does anyone know how to make a Mac OS alias in Perl? So, I wish to have Perl create aliases in multiple directories rather than copy the original file. There actually is no API call to create an alias file. You can do it in Perl as described at http://use.perl.org/~pudge/journal/10437 Alternatively, you can make a new alias via AppleScripting the Finder as: set thaAlias to Harddisk:Users:peter:thefile.cpp as alias tell application Finder set f to make new alias file at desktop to thaAlias end tell If you're not into the O-O stuff involved with the AppleScript modules, and you're not in a hurry, it's possible to invoke the osascript tool from within perl using backticks. You can create a string of AppleScript commands to pass to it with simple perl concatenations like .= or you can use a here document with perl's here or with shell's here depending on how you set the backticks. Test your AppleScript code with Script Editor first. Using Finder is pretty much required because Finder owns the specification for an alias file. I have never seen a formal description of that or, for that matter, an alias resource. They are based on the file-id number which never repeats as files are created on a partition but there is more to it because that doesn't always work. Aliases do survive a file name change by the user and they use volume names so that Finder can request a floppy by name if an old alias pops up. What can cause an alias to fail is an editor that always writes the changed file to a newly created copy and then changes the names around so the original becomes the backup. The alias will point to the original while a symbolic link will point to the new. -- Applescript syntax is like English spelling: Roughly, though not thoroughly, thought through.
Re: Mac OS alias from Perl
Yes the alias function in MacOSX is different than regular Unix. If your software is targets a Unix server and not to only run under MacOSX, it is much better to make the links on the Mac at the command line with Unix ln command (e.g. ln -s -which is safer) to test and maintain a consistent Unix environment. Fortunately Mac support of regular Unix is really excellent and ln works as advertise on a Mac. By the way, another "got-you" is the Mac filesystem. On new Mac computers where the software is pre-installed, the filesystem ignores case. The is not true in regular Unix. For example: in regular Unix, a file name like "johnsfile" and "johnsFile" are considered different file. But on the Mac, they are considered the same. But you have a true Unix filesystem by reformating the disk to support case sensitive file naming. This has hurt me several times till I reformated my drive. Chris Devers wrote: On Dec 8, 2007, at 7:06 PM, Celeste Suliin Burris [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Use a symbolic link instead. Perl handles those natively, and they can be accessed from the command line. The Finder just treats them the same as aliases. Not quite. I forget the details at the moment, but Finder aliases are kind of like "firm links": while hardlinks point to inodes, and softlinks point to file pathnames, aliases point to the logical file in a more robust way than symlinks. For example, if the reverent file moves, symlinks break, but aliases shouldn't. If you really want aliases, I think the CPAN modules of Dan Kogai and Chris Nandor are the place to start. I forget who wrote what, but modules like (I think) MacOS::File and Mac::Glue can either make the right calls directly, or leverage Applescript / OSAscript to do this for you. Or if symlinks/softlinks are enough, just use the traditional Perl / Unix methods to make those. -- Michael Barto Software Architect LogiQwest Inc. 16458 Bolsa Chica Street, # 15 Huntington Beach, CA92649 http://www.logiqwest.com/ [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tel:714 377 3705 Fax:714 840 3937 Cell: 714 883 1949 'tis a gift to be simple This e-mail may contain LogiQwest proprietary information and should be treated as confidential.
Re: Mac OS alias from Perl
[[ This message was both posted and mailed: see the To, Cc, and Newsgroups headers for details. ]] In article [EMAIL PROTECTED], Dan Neville [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hello, Does anyone know how to make a Mac OS alias in Perl? So, I wish to have Perl create aliases in multiple directories rather than copy the original file. I've now create MacOSX::Alias based on Chris's code. It's on CPAN as a developer release right now.
