Sandbox and symbolic links
 

Currently, I have an iMac which has a problem with Finder. Despite everything I've been unable to resolve it.

Fortunately, I have my SuperDuper! image to boot from and for the last three days everything has been running correctly.

I have decided to restore the iMac internal drive from the image which is on an external FireWire drive. As I'm going to be doing this I'm considering setting up a sandbox on an internal partition on the iMac. I will then back up the iMac drive to a regular FireWire drive.

As I use the same software on both my MacBook air and the iMac, I use Dropbox to maintain settings and application-specific files in sync across the two Macs. To achieve this I symbolic links within Dropbox.

My question is, if setting up a sandbox, will be symbolic links still remain correct or will I need to re-establish them for the sandbox partition as well as the regular partition?

Well, a Sandbox simply symlinks the Home folder in its simplest form, so one would expect it to work, but I really can't be sure. Adding additional complexity like the Dropbox linking, though, isn't something I've tested.

You can now tell Dropbox to sync other folders, though, as I recall. Maybe that would be simpler?

Regardless, be careful...

Thanks Dave.

So, if I understand correctly, creating a sandbox will create symbolic links of my symbolic links. I can see how that may cause problems!

At the moment Dropbox doesn't allow synching of folders that are not contained within the dropbox folder. What it does now allow this selective synching of those folders, rather than having to sync all of them.

I'll let you know how I get on should I decide to proceed with this plan.

Well, that depends. It'll copy the same symbolic links, which will be relative the same way they were before... which may end up with double-linkage, depending on what you are doing. Should be fine if al application handles paths right...

I had hoped Dropbox has loosened its folder restrictions a bit - ah well.

Please can you cast your eye over this strategy, Dave?

Current:

iMac with internal 2Tb drive. No partitions.
External 2TB firewire drive with SD backup img.
Apple Timecapsule Timemachine backup of iMacHD. Hourly.

Proposed:

Erase and partition iMac internal 2Tb drive then restore from External 2TB firewire drive SD backup img to achieve the following:

iMac with 2Tb internal drive. 2partitions: iMacHD and Sandbox.
External 2Tb firewire drive with SD Smart Update img of both iMac partions. Daily.
Additional External 2Tb firewire drive with SD img of iMacHD. Monthly.
Apple Timecapsule Timemachine backup of iMacHD. Hourly.

Is this a sound strategy, overly complex, redundant in some way?

In general, there's little reason to back up a Sandbox: it's intended to be a 'temporary' location where you're running from while testing updates...

I'm pleased to say that, so far, it's all working fine.:)

Glad to hear it. Lurkers: BE CAREFUL OUT THERE.