I like to use macOS's alias feature to not have to make redundant files. These aliases work great with Chrome and TextEdit. When I open them with vim, however, I get a giant messy file (presumably the way macOS encodes aliases). Is there a way to edit the actual file through an alias with vim?
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Just curious as to why you want to edit a macOS Alias file? – user3439894 Feb 05 '18 at 23:16
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I can't speak for the OP but I would like to do it in order to create a more complicated command with multiple arguments, something I can't directly create an alias for. The "select new original" button only seems to allow you to link to a single file, with no arguments or additional editing, which is what I need. – Tim Nov 12 '21 at 17:49
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macOS aliases are just normal files. macOS knows when an alias is being accessed and passes the right file along to the app. Since aliases are just normal files, other tools just open the alias file itself rather than reading the contents of the file and finding where it points to.
If you actually want a link to another file, you can create a symbolic link instead of using aliases:
grg
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