Making aliases to hidden directories

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Level 1

8 points

Making aliases to hidden directories

Hey everybody,

I want to make have an alias (shortcut) on my desktop to a subdirectory that's in the hidden "usr" directory (Macintosh HD/usr).

I've gotten as far as revealing the folder "usr" by using the terminal, but when I right click on the subdirectory, the option to "Make Alias" does not show up as it normally does. This applies to every subdirectory contained in "usr."

What do I need to do in order to make an alias of a folder inside "usr"?

Thanks.

Mac OS X (10.6.7)

Posted on Feb 3, 2013 8:28 PM

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Answer 1

Niel

Level 10

741,809 points

Feb 3, 2013 8:29 PM in response to aruncroll

Press the Option and Command keys while dragging the folder to the desktop.

(76010)

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Answer 2

aruncroll Author

Level 1

8 points

Feb 3, 2013 8:33 PM in response to Niel

Thank you, it worked perfectly!

But I'm still curious: why do some files not have the option to have an alias made when you right click on them?

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Answer 3

Feb 3, 2013 9:38 PM in response to aruncroll

The Make Alias commad creates an alias in the same directory as the original file. That's usually not what you want any way. If you don't have permission to write in the directory, the command won't be available. /usr is in the root directory, which is not user writable.

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