Aliases and the Finder
The Finder for System 7.0 allows the user to create multiple desktop icons to represent a single document or other desktop object (such as a disk, a
folder, or the Trash). One of the icons represents the actual file; the others
are aliases that point to the file. An alias is an object on the desktop that
represents some other file, directory, or volume. An alias looks like the icon of
its target, but its name is displayed in a different style. The style depends on
the system script; for Roman and most other scripts, alias names are
displayed in italic.
To the user, the icons of the actual file and its aliases are functionally
identical. Aliases give the user more flexibility in organizing the desktop and
offer a convenient way to store a local copy of a large or dynamic file that
resides on a file server.
As a desktop object, the alias depicts a file called the alias file, which contains
a record that points to the file, directory, or volume represented by the icon.
Alias files are created and managed by the user through the Finder. Although your application should not create alias files or change users'
desktop aliases, your application can create and use its own alias records for
storing identifying information about files or directories. An alias record is
a data structure that identifies a file, folder, or volume. Whenever your
application needs to store file or directory information, you can record the
location and other identifying information in an alias record. The next time
your application needs the file or directory, you can use the Alias Manager to locate it, even if the user has renamed it, copied it, re stored it from backup,
or moved it. You can also use alias records to identify objects on other
about creating and managing information in alias records.
Ordinarily, when the user wants to open or print files, your application does
not need to be concerned with whether they are aliases because both the
to your application. If the user opens an alias that represents a document
created by your application, the Finder passes your application the name and location of the document itself, not the alias. Similarly, when the user opens
your application the name of the target document.
when manipulating documents, it should check for and resolve aliases itself by