Re: following symbolic links and access to '..'

[Christian Neumair <cneumair gnome org>]

Am Freitag, den 08.08.2008, 08:20 +0200 schrieb Emmanuel Dupoux:
> if you open a directory through a symbolic link
> you are stuck in the subpart of the directory tree that is pointed by
> the link. 
> It is a major pain in the neck. Is there a way to access the ..
> directory?

No, because that's how symbolic links are supposed to work, and how they
work in a UNIX shell. If you want a shortcut rather than a “pseudo
duplicate”, you have to create a launcher, for instance by
right-clicking on the desktop, chosing "Create Launcher..." and entering
the target URI into the dialog. You can then move the launcher wherever
you want.

I have been thinking about more intuitive ways of exposing the launcher
vs. symbolic link concept, but I could not come up with a satisfying
solution. Maybe both should be called “Link”, and for local links you
have two right-click context menu entries

[ ] Symbolic Link
[X] Launchable Link, or Shortcut

Toggling would replace the symlink with a launcher and vice versa. The
proposed naming is poor, a concise naming that is intuitive for the
majority of users has to be found. In essence, the difference is
“behaves-like” vs. “points-to”.

best regards,
 Christian Neumair

-- 
Christian Neumair <cneumair gnome org>