Advanced File & Folder Copying

[AntibalasHiFi]

Hey all.

Couldn't figure this one out so figured I'd let you smart folks take a crack at it.

I want to be able to copy a folder (and all it's sub-directories) to another location, but have the contained files to be aliases to the original location. Basically, I need aliases for all the files, but the folders should exist in the new place. It needs to be this way for an application I use every day.

I don't need them to be sync'd, a one-time operation will surely suffice.

Thanks in advance!

AHF

 

[ScoobyMcDoo]

Are you sure you cannot get away with just making the top level folder an alias?

 

[Weaselboy]

Hey all.

Couldn't figure this one out so figured I'd let you smart folks take a crack at it.

I want to be able to copy a folder (and all it's sub-directories) to another location, but have the contained files to be aliases to the original location. Basically, I need aliases for all the files, but the folders should exist in the new place. It needs to be this way for an application I use every day.

I don't need them to be sync'd, a one-time operation will surely suffice.

Thanks in advance!

AHF

It sounds like a symlink to the top folder would do what you are after. Post up more info on what you are trying to do and we can maybe help.

 

[AntibalasHiFi]

Thanks for replying!

A little more detail:

Basically, I'm using Native Instruments Kontakt to load and run music samples from various drives. I want everything to be organized in one place, so I can categorize everything and not have to browse multiple drives to browse my entire collection.

So for each set of samples, there are sub-folders (sometimes several) each containing "patch" files that you can load, which point to a set of samples and load them. Kontakt doesn't have a "back" button in it's built-in navigation, only "up", which means that if if I use a folder alias at some point, it switches to that drive, and I can't go "back" to where I have everything categorized. But if I can make real folders on one drive to categorize everything, and simply have alises to the patches, everything will load fine, and I can go back to look at other sample sets if I'd like.

The issue is, it's a very time-consuming and monotonous task that should be able to be done automagically. That's why I'm here

I hope that makes sense!

 

[Weaselboy]

Thanks for replying!

A little more detail:

Basically, I'm using Native Instruments Kontakt to load and run music samples from various drives. I want everything to be organized in one place, so I can categorize everything and not have to browse multiple drives to browse my entire collection.

So for each set of samples, there are sub-folders (sometimes several) each containing "patch" files that you can load, which point to a set of samples and load them. Kontakt doesn't have a "back" button in it's built-in navigation, only "up", which means that if if I use a folder alias at some point, it switches to that drive, and I can't go "back" to where I have everything categorized. But if I can make real folders on one drive to categorize everything, and simply have alises to the patches, everything will load fine, and I can go back to look at other sample sets if I'd like.

The issue is, it's a very time-consuming and monotonous task that should be able to be done automagically. That's why I'm here

I hope that makes sense!

So are these samples and patch files both on the same drive? If they are I believe a symlink from the top sample folder on that drive to your main drive would do what you want.

 

[AntibalasHiFi]

So are these samples and patch files both on the same drive? If they are I believe a symlink from the top sample folder on that drive to your main drive would do what you want.

Yes, the samples and patch files are on the same drive.

I created symbolic links using the program SymbolicLinker and it ended up acting the same way as aliases do in Kontakt :/ it relocates the browser to the original directory.

Any other suggestions?

 

[AntibalasHiFi]

bump? :/

 

[switon]

RE: mv and ln ...

Hi AntibalashHiFi,

Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you wish to accomplish, but it sounds like to me that you wish to move a directory (and its subdirectories and files) to a new location on the same drive, and then have symbolic links back to the original location. If this is what you require, then the following should work:

mv /Volumes/diskdrive1/olddirectorypath /Volumes/diskdrive1/newdirectorypath
ln -s /Volumes/diskdrive1/newdirectorypath /Volumes/diskdrive1/olddirectorypath

Of course, you have to have the appropriate permissions to perform the move and link. But once done, this gives you access to all subdirectories and files from both /Volumes/diskdrive1/newdirectorypath and /Volumes/diskdrive1/olddirectorypath.

Realize, that doing this on a single volume means that the "physical" data in the files are not actually moved, only pointers in the directory listings are changed. In other words, very little data has actually changed location on your drive "diskdrive1", just a few pointers.

Edit: And, of course, the same access would be had if you simply added a symbolic link from the old directory to the new one:

ln -s /Volumes/diskdrive1/olddirectorypath /Volumes/diskdrive1/newdirectorypath

Regards,
Switon