Using Symbolic Links to Sync System Files
This is a short tutorial on using symbolic links to sync files that live outside of your Dropbox or other sync folder.
I use this to synchronize my Omnigraffle stencils and Adobe templates across multiple Macs. Although untested, this may also be used to get around the restriction that Live Mesh imposes on not allowing items within system folders to be synced (e.g. Library on Mac or Application Support on Windows).
What is a Symbolic Link?
They are basically the UNIX equivalent to an “Alias” to a file on a Mac or a “Shortcut” in Windows.
Why do I care?
Because they are actually more powerful and can be used to do some nifty tricks. Symbolic links can point directly to the actual file from multiple locations. An alias or shortcut is a file in itself, and in some ways is treated like any other file. If you were to synchronize an alias, the shortcut reference file is copied over, not the file it points to. So we can use symbolic links to synchronize preferences or system files that live outside of your Dropbox, Live Mesh, or specific backup folder.
source:
http://www.pxc.me.uk/misc/dropbox_mac_use.html#symboliclinker
The easy way – install this finder applescript
http://seiryu.home.comcast.net/~seiryu/symboliclinker.html
The readme file explains how to install, as there are a couple ways to do it depending on which Mac OS you are using.
And for the technical, a full-on terminal method can be found here:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=2001110610290643
Also see this Dropbox-related post:
Sync your files across multiple computers seamlessly
