Subject: Re: netatalk in production environments...Definitive
From: Stephen Welker (stephen.welker@nemostar.com.au)
Date: Thu Jun 01 2000 - 10:37:06 EDT
on 1/6/00 8:40 PM, Sak Wathanasin wrote:
> Why do appls use alis records to track files? For one thing,
> pathnames aren't sufficient on MacOS: you can have more than 1
> mounted volume with the same name. Besides, Apple tells you to -
> there's a tech note somewhere that recommends to developers that
> appls save alis'es instead of pathnames.
>
> * See chapter 4 of "Inside Macintosh: Files"
OK, I think we need some clarifiaction regarding aliases. Especially for the
non Macintosh developers on this list.
(1) As stated above, simple pathnames do not work.
(2) A Finder alias is a file.
(3) Alias records (AliasRecord) are data structures used by the File
Manager.
(4) Finder alias files use Alias Records internally to implement the
behaviour as expected.
(5) At least one recent release of MacOS had broken alias support,
particularly with AppleShare volumes (cf Tech Info Library).
(6) Netatalk alias support _is_ work in progress.
(7) Recently Adrian Sun issued a RFC on implementing alias behaviour
correctly within netatalk - I suspect the invitation is still open.
(8) Apple Filing Protocol (AFP) 3.0 has just been published, 90 pages in
length, thus to implement every feature as expected is a massive job.
Hope this clears some confusion.
If there are any errors in the above items, please email directly, I will
summarise to the list.
-- Stephen Welker
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