Moving home directory

elisatems wrote:

So do you think my safest bet is just to wipe the internal drive, reinstall the OS and then restore my account from a backup, before redoing the home directory move the right way?

I don’t know. Maybe try to get a second opinion. There is always a risk a major restore like that anyway.

I’ve just seen many low-level inconsistencies that make me question popular practices. I once lost all continuity/handoff functionality from duplicating an installation. I try to warn people about that, but they don’t believe me because they don’t use those features so they didn’t notice the problem. I’ve seen other things that lead to massive internal database confusion that I don’t like. But no one else ever looks at those databases so they don’t notice. Personally, I think these kinds of issues are what causes certain computers to run 2-3 times slower than others. They still run very fast, faster than your old 2010 model, but not like it should and not with the performance that you paid for. Yet most people never notice that.

Correct, but I did make one critical mistake which, according to @etresoft, could cause inconsistencies that only show up much later down the line: namely, that I did the actual copying while logged into my account.

Yes, and I tried to explain that I'm not sure that will cause any problems.

I can't tell from the man page if ditto preserves permissions (it has an option for ACLs which is on by default).

And guess what? man is still trying to call /bin/more and thus I can't read any man pages on my Mac.

I think you said that man works normally for you. Which version of MacOS are you running?

I'm running 13.1.

I'm trying to determine if this might be a bug in 13.1. The other possibility is that Migration Assistant overwrote something when restoring my files.

I don't think it will overwrite newer system files. However, it could be something in your config files which probably will get overwritten. Did you ever try in a new user account? I can't remember.

From another unrelated thread, I found out that man was once a binary, but now is a script. If you migrated something that supported the binary, it could be something in the configuration files causing your issue with man.

elisatems wrote:

That seems transparent enough at least at first glance. Anything I'm forgetting? Is that also a time bomb?

You can do what you want with your own computer. But I can't help with any hacking like that. You have two legitimate options:

1) Buy a new computer with a bigger startup volume

2) Stop using OneDrive

elisatems wrote:

How is that hacking?

That's not the way the system was designed to work. Any effort to get software to work in a manner that the developer did not intend is a hack. There is no way to predict what will happen.

If Apple's OS assumes that all of your content is inside the directories people normally put content in, then its design is completely brain-dead or worse, user-hostile.

It is objectively the best-selling, most popular software design ever made.

Are you saying that the OS will someday torpedo any file that isn't in one of the special locations mandated by Apple?

No. I'm saying that those special locations have special properties. If you save a file that isn't in a special location, then nothing will happen to it. What I'm saying is that if you try to change the design or behaviour of one of those special locations, then you are putting yourself at risk of data loss.

That's totally insane, why would anyone design a system like that?

Apple once had a system where you could save a file anywhere you wanted. You could hack pretty much anything on it. If you listen to people today, they'll tell you it was the greatest thing ever, the way Steve intended it, yada, yada, yada. It almost drove Apple into bankruptcy.

Then Apple came out with a system that was much more restrictive. It was more restrictive even than the current design. It made Apple so much money they literally had to start giving it away.

And if that's true, what use is an external drive unless you put your home directory on it?

To store files on? An external volume, or any location that isn't in a protected directory like Documents, Downloads, Desktop, Library, etc. can be used for anything you want. Hack it up to your heart's content. Nothing stopping you. But if you want to hack up a directory that is intimately tied to some syncing software, you are effectively hacking around on the internals of that software. Apple has special provisions to allow more-or-less normal Finder access to folders used by iCloud and 3rd party sync software. But if you deviate from that kind of normal behaviour, and symbolic links are definitely a deviation, then you have no guarantee of data integrity.

From what I see, many users have external drives but they don't move their home directory. How can that extra space be safely used?

As I've said several times already, there is absolutely nothing wrong with moving your home directory. But if OneDrive doesn't work with that, then that's a bug for OneDrive to solve. And if you depend on OneDrive, then you are simply out of options. You can store anything you want on your external drive. Just not anything related to OneDrive, apparently.

The is a user-to-user support forum for Apple products. As far as I'm concerned, you can just turn on iCloud Drive and the problem's solved. Apple offers plans up to 2 TB of cloud storage. You don't need any external drives. But if you want to have some files on an external volume instead of or in addition to iCloud, go right ahead. There's absolutely no problem with that. If you have some 3rd party tool that can't use your external drive, or some sync tool that for some reason needs more space than you have, then that sounds like a problem with the 3rd party tool. That's not a problem that is going to get solved on the Apple forums.

You’ve been posting messages for a week talking about NFS servers, moving your home directory while logged in, then corrupting your home directory, then OneDrive not working, and now the solution is simply a symbolic link in your documents folder that I won’t let you do? If that is truly the solution and fixes everything, then go for it. Don’t let me stop you.

There is no requirement that we approve or provide assistance to every, or to any, idea that you may have. I’ve already told you what are the best solutions to your problem:

1) buy a new computer with adequate storage, or

2) stop using buggy 3rd party cloud storage

You are free to reject those solutions but don’t expect any further explanations or help.

elisatems wrote:

In one post, you say that I can store my data on an external drive (perfectly acceptable assuming there is a safe way to access it), in the next you say that I need to buy "a new computer with adequate storage"? Is this supposed to be helpful?

I've totally lost track of what you are trying to do, and why. You said you wanted to move your home directory to an external drive because "space becoming very tight". Why is that? Have you tried deleting files? Moving big files to that external drive? What's the deal with OneDrive? Is that what is taking up all of your space? Does it not have basic iCloud functionality to only maintain local copies of recent files? I don't know, and I don't care, because it's OneDrive. This is discussions.apple.com, not discussions.microsoft.com.

You're telling me that things I've done on other Unix systems since the mid '80s are unsafe in MacOS world.

A file sync system is simply a distributed database. You will have as much success hacking around on the internals as you would have had hacking around on the internals of a distributed Oracle database in the mid '80s.

I've already said that I can do without the convenience symlink you say is unsafe - is it safe to put an external folder in the sidebar? Set the Finder to open new windows in an external folder? These are perfectly acceptable assuming they won't someday lead to data loss.

As I keep saying, if you have managed to solve your disk space issue, repair your corrupted home directory, and are now confident that you can solve your problem by creating a convenience symbolic link, a sidebar entry, or a Finder setting, then why do you keep asking for my approval? You've got my approval! Do it! Create that link and live the dream.

And if they are, why do I need to by ANOTHER new computer? That's not an option (this IS a new computer, does Apple accept an exchange? I didn't think so)... nor is not using OneDrive. If it was my choice I would chuck OD in a heartbeat... it is my EMPLOYER'S choice, full stop.

Then tell you employer to buy you a new computer with more storage and/or provide technical support to its employees. I don't work for your employer so I have no concerns about your employers dire financial straits or inadequate IT staff.

elisatems wrote:

I just want to find a safe and supported solution to my disk space problem within the constraints imposed by my job.

You repeatedly refuse to accept safe and supported solutions.

You've given me advice that seems contradictory

No, you keep misrepresenting what I'm saying.

If you can't offer helpful information but only ridicule ideas for solutions I've asked about, then why reply at all?

And if you can't offer anything but insults when people try to help you, then why reply at all?

For the last time.

Do whatever you want.