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The macOS User Administration Guide

You're reading from   The macOS User Administration Guide A practical guide to implementing, managing, and optimizing macOS Big Sur features and tools

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Product type Paperback
Published in Apr 2021
Publisher Packt
ISBN-13 9781838643652
Length 804 pages
Edition 1st Edition
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Author (1):
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Herta Nava Herta Nava
Author Profile Icon Herta Nava
Herta Nava
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Table of Contents (19) Chapters Close

Preface 1. Overview of the macOS System, Architecture, and Features 2. Installing and Configuring macOS FREE CHAPTER 3. The Start Up Process 4. User Accounts Management 5. Managing User Security and Privacy 6. The macOS File System: Disks, Volumes, and Partitions 7. Understanding Ownership and Permissions 8. System Resources and Shortcuts 9. Understanding Metadata and Searching 10. Managing Apps and Documents 11. Backups and Archiving 12. Networking in macOS 13. Using macOS Network Services 14. Using macOS Sharing Services 15. Managing Security in macOS 16. Using the Command Line 17. Troubleshooting Tips 18. About Packt

Understanding shortcuts in macOS

Shortcuts are resources in macOS used to avoid duplicate resources and to organize and optimize the filesystem. In the context of macOS, "shortcuts" means files that point to other files or folders. macOS uses these shortcuts to point to a single item (the original one) that needs to be in multiple locations instead of having multiple copies of that same item. Knowing about shortcuts is important so that you know how to locate the original items and perhaps create your own shortcuts to organize your filesystem.

In this section, we will look at the following topics:

  • Types of shortcuts
  • Creating shortcuts

Let's start by looking at the types of shortcuts macOS uses.

Types of shortcuts

There are three types of primary filesystem shortcuts used in macOS:

  • Aliases
  • Symbolic links
  • Hard links

Let's explore in a little more detail how they are different from each other.

Aliases

Aliases are shortcuts that contain information that allows the...

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