Editing Alias (Mac OS) (section)

{{Short description|Small file that represents another file}}
{{refimprove|date=May 2010}}
{{More footnotes|date=April 2009}}
{{Infobox file format
|name = Mac OS Alias
|magic = {{code|'book\0\0\0\0mark\0\0\0\0'}}
|developer = Apple, Inc.
|genre = [[shortcut (computing)|shortcut]]
| type_code = alis
|uniform_type=com.apple.alias-file
}}

In [[classic Mac OS]] [[System 7 (Macintosh)|System 7]] and later, and in [[macOS]], an '''alias''' is a small file that represents another object in a local, remote, or removable<ref>{{cite web|url=https://developer.apple.com/documentation/mac/Files/Files-343.html#HEADING343-15|title=Chapter 4 - Alias Manager / About the Alias Manager - Search Strategies|website=[[Inside Macintosh]]: Files|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081007183606/https://developer.apple.com/documentation/mac/Files/Files-343.html|archive-date=October 7, 2008}}</ref> [[file system]] and provides a dynamic link to it; the target object may be moved or renamed, and the alias will still link to it (unless the original file is recreated; such an alias is ambiguous and how it is resolved depends on the version of macOS). In Windows, a [[shortcut (computing)|"shortcut"]], a file with a .lnk extension, performs a similar function.

It is similar to the [[Unix]] [[symbolic link]], but with the distinction of working even if the target file moves to another location on the same disk (in this case it acts like a [[hard link]], but the source and target of the link may be on different filesystems, and the target of the link may be a directory). As a descendant of [[BSD]], macOS supports Unix symbolic (and hard) links as well.