Links in root with Big Sur

Hi,

Is it possible in Big Sur to create symbolic link in root directory with the file /etc/synthetic.conf, as it was in Catalina?

thanks

Replies

Supposedly it is, but I have not managed to get it to work.

I have followed instructions via:

man synthetic.conf

added the following to /etc/synthetic.conf (permissions: 644)

XYZ /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/system
XYZ2 /System/Volumes/Data/home
XYZ3 System/Volumes/Data/home

...trying different syntax and paths:

EXAMPLES
           # create an empty directory named "foo" at / which may be mounted over
           foo

           # create a symbolic link named "bar" at / which points to
           # "System/Volumes/Data/bar", a writeable location at the root of the data volume
           bar     System/Volumes/Data/bar

           # create a symbolic link named "baz" at / which points to "Users/me/baz"
           baz     Users/me/baz

but after reboot I see no reference to these symbolic links:

ls -l

ps. confirming permisions:

root: read, write
wheel: read
everyone: read

I really need this to work. Any have any thoughts?

Supposedly it is, but I have not managed to get it to work.

This works on my machine, in exactly the same way it did on Catalina:

% ls -l /etc/synthetic.conf 
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  28 28 Apr  2020 /etc/synthetic.conf
% cat /etc/synthetic.conf 
QQQ     System/Volumes/Data/QQQ
% ls -l /
…
lrwxr-xr-x   1 root  wheel    23 14 May 08:42 QQQ -> System/Volumes/Data/QQQ
…

IMPORTANT The field separate in synthetic.conf must be a tab character. The most common cause of problems with this is editors that insert a sequence of spaces when you press the Tab key.

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Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"

  • It works on my macOS Montery,thks

  • It works on my macOS Ventura with M2 chip, Thanks

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