symbolic links, aliases, cls clear

[SM Ryan]

"mp" <mailpitches at email.com> wrote:
# i have a python program which attempts to call 'cls' but fails:
# 
# sh: line 1: cls: command not found
# 
# i tried creating an alias from cls to clear in .profile, .cshrc, and
# /etc/profile, but none of these options seem to work.
# 
# my conclusion is that a python program that is executing does not use
# the shell (because it does not recognize shell aliases). is this
# correct?

Shell command alias or Mac OSX file alias, like a Finder Make Alias?

A file alias is similar to a soft link except it has both path
and device/inode like information so that it can still identify
a renamed file. However aliasses are handled at the toolbox level
instead of the kernel, so that unix only code cannot resolve them.


//  readalias - Resolve Finder alias files to the actual
//    file, if it can be found. The interface is modelled
//    after readlink. If the original is not alias
//    or could not be resolved, return 0 and set errno.
//    Otherwise return a mallocked string with the
//    actual file path; caller must free.
//
//  On non-macintosh systems, this always returns an
//  error.

#ifdef ALIAS
  #include <CoreFoundation/CoreFoundation.h>
  #include <ApplicationServices/ApplicationServices.h>

  static char *readalias(char *original) {
    int ec = 0;
    CFStringRef path = 0;
    CFStringRef resolvedPath = 0;
    CFURLRef url = 0;
    CFURLRef resolvedUrl = 0;
    FSRef fsRef;
    char *s = 0;
    if (!(path=CFStringCreateWithCString(NULL,original,kCFStringEncodingUTF8))) {
      ec = EFAULT; goto exit;
    }
    if (!(url=CFURLCreateWithFileSystemPath(NULL,path,kCFURLPOSIXPathStyle,0))) {
      ec = EFAULT; goto exit;
    }
    if (!CFURLGetFSRef(url,&fsRef)) {
      ec = ENOENT; goto exit;
    }
    Boolean targetIsFolder,wasAliased;
    if ((ec=FSResolveAliasFile(&fsRef,true,&targetIsFolder,&wasAliased))) {
      goto exit;
    }
    if (!wasAliased) {
      ec = EINVAL; goto exit;
    }
    if (!(resolvedUrl=CFURLCreateFromFSRef(NULL,&fsRef))) {
      ec = EFAULT; goto exit;
    }
    if (!(resolvedPath = CFURLCopyFileSystemPath(resolvedUrl,kCFURLPOSIXPathStyle))) {
      ec = EFAULT; goto exit;
    }
    s = (char*)CFStringGetCStringPtr(resolvedPath,kCFStringEncodingUTF8);
    if (s) {
      s = strcpy(malloc(strlen(s)+1),s);
    }else {
      int n = 3*CFStringGetLength(resolvedPath) + 1; s = malloc(n);
      if (CFStringGetCString(resolvedPath,s,n,kCFStringEncodingUTF8)) {
        s = realloc(s,strlen(s)+1);
      }else {
        ec = EFAULT; goto exit;
      }
    }
  exit:
    if (path) CFRelease(path);
    if (resolvedPath) CFRelease(resolvedPath);
    if (url) CFRelease(url);
    if (resolvedUrl) CFRelease(resolvedUrl);
    if (ec) {
      if (ec<0) ec = ENOENT;
      errno = ec; free(s); s = 0;
    }
    return s;
  }
#else
  static char *readalias(char *original) {
    errno = EINVAL;
    return 0;
  }
#endif

--
SM Ryan http://www.rawbw.com/~wyrmwif/
But I do believe in this.