Controlling the display name of mount points in Finder.

I think you misunderstood the question. Or maybe you didn't read it. To clarify:

I want to make Finder display the name of the mount point, NOT the name of the remote folder. If I could get it to keep the original icon instead of the net drive icon as well, that would REALLY make my day.

So server:/docs/User1 mounted on ~/Documents should be displayed as Documents, not User1

I guess maybe this isn't so much Finder's doing, as it happens in all system file browser components. So the solution to my question must apply across all the system dialogs as well. I don't want to open a file upload dialog in Chrome and have to search through a load of folders with the same name.

Also, please do not suggest mounting somewhere else, or renaming the folders on the server.

Sorry if it seemed like I snapped, I just wanted to clarify my question. I apologize if I hurt anyone's feelings.

I thought it was a pretty straightforward question and that the details of my specific situation would be irrelevant, so I made up a generalized example to illustrate a scenario which would present the behavior I wish to change.

Now I'll divulge a bit more detail, to at least give you a better picture of what I'm doing, even if it doesn't necessarily pertain to my question.

I use different filesystems for different data types. The server is running FreeBSD, and storage is all in ZFS pools. I have the data stored separately by type, because it really does make sense to do it that way. Videos and music have compression and dedup off, on fast access storage, and the filesystem is tuned for large files and fast sequential reads. Documents and downloads compress well, and these files typically do not require streaming from disk so the storage can be slower without it being a problem. Other data types benefit from other configurations. Separating datasets like this also allows me to tune both the filesystems on the server and the mount parameters on the client for each dataset. Furthermore, it can help keep storage responsive under load.

I realize that this may seem completely asinine, but none of the above is relevant to my question. I simply wish to know if it is possible for OS X to be configured to display the name of the directory upon which a remote filesystem has been mounted, instead of displaying the name of the remote directory. In other words, I wish for the GUI to use the same naming conventions as the CLI.

Another example:

workstation:~ coder$ mkdir "Shared Music"
workstation:~ coder$ mount -o vers=4 fileshare:/music "Shared Music"
workstation:~ coder$ ls
Desktop          Downloads        Movies           Pictures         Shared Music
Documents        Library          Music            Public
workstation:~ coder$ ls "Shared Music"
Sublime

In the Cocoa interface however, that directory would be displayed as "music", but I want it to display "Shared Music".

I have already figured out my own workarounds, I would simply like to know if there is a way to change this behavior in OS X, if only for my own knowledge.

Well, you can't mount on a directory that doesn't exist, and mkdir /Volumes/Music && mount server:/music /Volumes/Music still shows up as music instead of Music. I did notice that some magic occured and /Volumes/Music gets removed automatically when I unmount, but that's trivial. Thanks for looking into it anyway, but I guess my best hope is that the guy at Apple who wrote this part of the OS will respond with something along the lines of "I'm surprised you are the first person to ask for this, just use `defaults write -g NSMountsUseRemoteName FALSE' to change that behavior."

*fingers crossed*

Thanks for the idea, but as I already mentioned, I don't need suggestions for a workaround, I came up with one on my own when I first discovered this behavior. I'm in fact doing as you describe, nesting one layer deeper to have the name on the server match what I expect on the client. This works, but it's a bit clunky. And it's annoying that I have to do this at all, simply because OS X behaves inconsistently. I don't have the same problem on Windows; NFS shares mounted on folder "ABC" do not decide to call themselves "ZYX" in the user interface. Same with the X11 toolkits. OS X is the odd one out. And it's just Cocoa it seems; X11 apps on OS X behave the same as they would on other operating systems.

So again, I've already implemented a workaround, I'm just curious if it is possible to change the behavior.

Thanks rccharles for the tip about Rez, I'll have to take a closer look at the resource forks. I nearly forgot they existed 🙂

I am very familiar with how mounting works, this ain't my first rodeo.

Mounting overlays the FILESYSTEM, not the NAME. If as defined by UNIX it is supposed to work the way you described, explain to me why the UNIX layer of OS X doesn't work that way. I showed this on the lines immediately following the one you quoted.

To quote the PDF you reference, "The effect of mount is to cause references to the heretofore ordinary file to refer instead to the root directory of the file system on the removable volume." References to the ordinary file are in fact BROKEN when the name changes, they effectively refer to nothing. So by definition, the name should NOT change. It actually makes sense if you think about it. I intentionally mounted a filesystem at a point with a name that MEANS something. In my example, I specifically created the mount point using the mkdir command and gave it the name I wanted it to have. Displaying a different name in Finder is confusing. Try it for yourself:

$ mkdir mnt

$ ln -s mnt usb

$ ls -l usb

lrwxr-xr-x 1 ryan staff 3 Mar 20 12:35 usb -> mnt

The symbolic link "usb" references the "mnt" ordinary file (directory). Assuming an unmounted usb drive attached as disk1, hfs filesystem on slice 2, mount the filesystem onto "mnt" and notice what happens:

$ mount -t hfs /dev/disk1s2 mnt

$ ls -l usb

lrwxr-xr-x 1 ryan staff 3 Mar 20 12:35 usb -> mnt

$ ls mnt

file1 file2

$ ls usb

file1 file2

$ ls

mnt usb

The usb symbolic link still references the mnt directory. This demonstrates that the BSD (or UNIX) level behaves as expected, by keeping the name of the mount point instead of adopting the name of the mounted filesystem. In Finder, you wouldn't be able find the mnt directory. It would be displayed as the label of the mounted filesystem. Let's simulate the chaos that would ensue if the name of the mounted filesystem was adopted:

$ mv mnt THUMB\ DRIVE

$ ls usb

usb

$ ls -l usb

lrwxr-xr-x 1 ryan staff 3 Mar 20 12:35 usb -> mnt

$ ls

usb THUMB DRIVE

The "usb" link still references "mnt", but "mnt" was renamed "THUMB DRIVE" so the link now points to nothing.

The fact that Cocoa displays the name of the volume instead of the name of the point at which it is mounted is purely cosmetic; the actual underlying path is structured as it should be, with the name of the mount point remaining unchanged. The behavior of the core OS is exactly what I want to achieve in the Cocoa GUI elements.

Yes, it currently Works As Designed, but the design would appear to be Apple's (or NeXT's perhaps, I haven't tried this on historic versions of the OS), not that of the creators of UNIX. I'm asking if the Design includes the obscure ability to control the displayed name of mount points in system-wide Cocoa UI elements. Please don't say I'm doing it wrong. I just want to know if something is possible. I hope this doesn't seem unreasonable.