Switch Users folder, best Leopard trick… so far
By Mark Tennent in Reader
Posted in Leopard on October 31, 2007 at 10:00 am
Before Leopard, Mac OS X expected the Users folder to be in the same disk location as the active System. This is usually no problem for Mac users with only one hard disk but for those cognoscenti who work in more rarified ways, having a System and the Users folders in different places is a real bonus.
It means, for example, we can have a huge folder with all our documents and applications, easily backed-up by copying just a single folder from one hard disk to another. Or we can have multiple Systems spread across different disks and partitions but all accessing the same Users folder.
Symbolic links
The Users are connected to the System by symbolic links – Unix’s special form of aliases – created by messing with the Terminal or NetInfo. One slip could be a calamity until applications such as SuperDuper automated this.
Now with new, improved, Leopard it’s all done through the Finder and the Log-in Preference Pane. Copy your Users folder to the new location either in Terminal by typing sudo ditto -rsrc “/Users/username” “/Volumes/path-to-new-folder” or by using a copying program such as SilverKeeper, SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner once they are guaranteed to be Leopard-friendly.
Open the lock in the Log-in Pane to enable changes, Control-Click on your account name and click on advanced options. The window above opens. Then simply select the new Users location. Restart and your Mac will now use the switched Users folder.
I haven’t played with the different Login Shells yet but they look interesting too. Anyone got any idea what they do?
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