Subject: Re: netatalk in production environments...Definitive
From: Luke McNeilage (lmn@d2p.com.au)
Date: Thu Jun 01 2000 - 19:35:40 EDT
If you read my prelim, I copy the alias OFF my NT volume on to my Netatalk
volume in the manner you describe.
And I can break an alias on a Macintosh ASIP 6 server by doing the same as
you described.
What is it you want?
> For example, Apple- (nee Claris-) Works uses alis records to
> locate its spelling dictionaries. So if a bunch of users wanted to
> share a common dict on a netatalk volume, too bad. And so on.
>
You just answered you own problem. The data file can live quite comfortably
on Linux, you alias to it lives on the Mac.
> Besides, Apple tells you to -
> there's a tech note somewhere that recommends to developers that
> appls save alias's instead of pathnames.
>
> * See chapter 4 of "Inside Macintosh: Files"
Recommending and Best Practice are a bit of a stretch. If somebody told you
to jump off a bridge......etc.
I think the only developer that relies heavily on aliases is Apple's
Internet Setup.
============================================================================
Luke McNeilage
Technical Director
D2P (Australasia) Pty Ltd
Email: lmn@d2p.com.au
Web: www.d2p.com.au
Australia's leading file delivery system for publishing & graphic arts.
Tel: +61 (0)3 9429 3233
Fax: +61 (0)3 9427 0929
Mobile: 0419 512 868
Suite 3/243 Bridge Road
Richmond VIC 3121
Australia
----------
>From: Sak Wathanasin <sw@nan.co.uk>
>To: netatalk-admins@umich.edu
>Subject: Re: netatalk in production environments...Definitive
>Date: Thu, 1 Jun 2000 8:40 PM
>
> In reply to Luke McNeilage's message of the 01/06/2000 at 17:43 +1000,
>
>
>>On one Macintosh make an alias of a file off my NT server.
>>Store that alias three directories deep.
>>open that directory on another Macintosh.
>>double click on the alias,
>>and it will prompt me to login to the NT Server.
>
> Um, if you bothered to read the list like you tell everyone to, you'd
> know that NT file services for Macintosh is one of the few to support
> file and directory IDs (ie aliases to you).
>
> On netatalk volumes, for example, aliases to a folder inside a volume
> work fine until you do something to change the directory structure.
> Try this:
>
> 1) create a folder on a netatalk vol, call it test
> 2) make an alias to it onto a local disk
> 3) dbl-click on the alias and it should open the folder on the
> mounted vol; unmount the netatalk vol, dbl-click the alias and it
> should re-mount the netatalk volume for you. So far so good
> 4) Now create a new folder called test1,and move the test folder
> inside the new one
> 5) dbl-click the alias and check that it still works (cool, no?
> Sym-links don't do this.)
> 6) Now re-boot the Mac; when it comes back up, dbl-click on the the
> alias. It will either say it can't be found, open a completely
> different folder or if you're dead lucky it will re-open the test
> folder. It all depends on whether netatalk has re-assigned it the
> same directory ID. In the case of the last, create another folder,
> test2, move the test folder to it, delete test1, reboot and try
> again. It will fail eventually.
>
> If this test sounds artificial, remember that on a busy server, users
> will be creating and deleting folders all the time.
>
> As for:
>
>>Its ill-advised information like this that causes distress
>>
>>Quark does not save aliased link, and the Mac OS just works more efficiently
>
> I'm sorry I picked a bad example in Quark: my memory isn't what it
> was or perhaps they've changed the file format since I last did any
> serious work with Q Express (v3! I was debugging an OPI server and QX
> gave us no end of grief, but that's another story). If I'd been
> thinking I would have realized that none of the appls with
> cross-platform file formats would keep alias records* in their data
> files (since this would not be supported on other platforms).
> Nevertheless, there are plenty of Mac appls that do esp in prefs
> files. For example, Apple- (nee Claris-) Works uses alis records to
> locate its spelling dictionaries. So if a bunch of users wanted to
> share a common dict on a netatalk volume, too bad. And so on.
>
> My point is that as a user, you have no control over this. It's great
> that most of the commonly used appls don't do this, but as a
> sysadmin, you can be pretty sure that some user will ring you up one
> day and say, "the XXX appl works if I sav eto my disk but not the
> file server". Of course, Murphy's law says that it will be your boss
> or biggest client and it will be their favourite PIM/drawing
> program/something absolutely essential.
>
> 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"
>
> --
> Sak Wathanasin
> Network Analysis Limited
> 178 Wainbody Ave South, Coventry CV3 6BX, UK
>
> Internet: sw@nan.co.uk
> Phone: (+44) 24 76 41 99 96 Mobile: (+44) 79 70 75 19 12
> Fax: (+44) 24 76 69 06 90
>
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