[Schlaefer]

I really would like to see Hazel "support" too.

[Christian Roth]

Originally Posted by Schlaefer

I really would like to see Hazel "support" too.

Well, for me, it looks like Hazel works in 5.7 as far as the moving goes.

The problem I have is with OW's dowload manager: Once Hazel moves the file, OW can no longer reveal it, saying that the file has been moved after download.

I thought that Mac OS X had a concept of file aliases, which allowed retrieving the location of a specific file even if it has been moved in the meantime (within the same volume). Is this functionality still present in Mac OS X? If so, would it be possible to have OW use Aliases for storing the downloaded items, so that even after it getting moved by Hazel, OW would be able to reveal (or open) it?

-Christian

[zottel]

I don't know if what you mean by "aliases" is what I think you mean, but if it is, we are talking about unix file descriptors. On unix or unix-like system like OS X, if an application opens a file, the subsequent accesses to that file are not handled by the file's path and name, but by a file descriptor, which is basically a number. Thus, if you rename or move a file within the same file system while any application still has it open, that's no problem. You could, for example, move a file currently being downloaded to another folder, and OW would still write to the correct file.

Alas, this only works for files that are still open. As soon as OW has closed the file, it has no means of telling where it has been moved to. [Edit for clarification: OW doesn't even know that the file has been moved/renamed at all, as it has been accessing it (writing to it) using the file descriptor, not the file name.] I think it would be possible that OW could, just before closing the file, find out what the current file name of that file descriptor is, and thus be able to reveal the correct file even if its name/position has been changed meanwhile. I'm not really sure, though, if there actually is an API function to do that.

[Edit: If there is such a function, it would be a really cool feature if OW could check the real file name every some seconds and adjust the display in the download window accordingly ... :-) ]

Best regards,

Christian

[Christian Roth]

No, I'm not talking of file descriptors, I'm talking of Aliases (and those specifically - not symbolic links). I just checked Apple Developer docs, and they seem to be still available in Mac OS X:

Alias Semantics

When OW would use such an object for storing its Download history, and Hazel performs its move operations in the way recommended in that document (instead of manual copy/deletions - I don't know if it does, but would hope so), OW's entries would still point to the correct file even if Hazel has moved the file after a completed download. That's what I'm after: Having downloaded a file, and having moved it (e.g. by Hazel, or even manually), OW would still be able to perform its "Show" command on a download list entry, as it would be able to find the moved file based on its alias's unique identity component (which is the fallback if its path is no longer available).

Am I missing something?

Regards,
Christian

[zottel]

Ah! I didn't know that feature. Sounds great, somehow similar to the "object oriented" behaviour OS/2 had.

I never heard of those aliases before—it seems they aren't used widely … ? Which is a pity, of course. Are there any OS X programmers here who could tell us if it is a hassle to use that feature without stumbling into problems if the FS isn't HFS(+)? I mean, wouldn't it be great if one could just, say, move the cache folder of a browser to anywhere (on the same fs) they like, without causing any problems whatsoever?

Thanks for the insight, btw.

Best regards,

Christian

P.S.: I fear the problem is somewhat similar to resource forks—a great concept, but limited to HFS(+), thus problematic in terms of OS interoperability and therefore used less and less …