Why is an alias 1MB?

Discussion in 'macOS' started by cutcopypaste, Feb 4, 2010.

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  1. cutcopypaste, Feb 4, 2010

    cutcopypaste macrumors regular

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    Nov 28, 2008
    #1
    Don't generally make aliases, but I'm doing some sorting and cross referencing on my harddrive and I noticed with detail view open that aliases I make to folders are all 1mb in size (~1038179 bytes with very limited variability). An alias is a link to another place on the harddrive, right? What possibly could be taking up that much space? and is this normal?
     
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  2. mac2x, Feb 4, 2010

    mac2x macrumors 65816

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    #2
    4 KB for me. :confused:
     
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  3. NJuul, Feb 5, 2010

    NJuul macrumors 6502

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    Boston
    #3
    I bet you it is a bug in Finder showing a wrong file size. Is it by any chance on a networked drive?
    I've noticed the same thing when I use samba sharing to connect to networked storage. For some reason, the minimum file size shown by finder is 1 MB, but the actual file size is maybe a few kb in most cases. If you want to be sure that your aliases aren't really 1 MB in size, try to use terminal to check it.
     
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  4. claidheamdanns, Feb 23, 2012

    claidheamdanns macrumors newbie

    claidheamdanns

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    Location:
    Memphis, TN
    #4
    I'm getting the same thing. And yes, it is an alias to a folder on a Network Drive on a PC Server.

    How do I use Terminal to check the real size of the alias (on my Mac)?
     
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  5. belvdr, Feb 23, 2012

    belvdr macrumors 603

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    #5
    Code:
    du -sk /path/to/alias
    will give you the size in KB.
     
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