Can symlinks be used in encrypted libraries?

[dmag]

Re: Symlinks and encrypted libraries

I read with interest the information on using symlinks (Manual section 3.2), as well as some of the related posts on the forum.

I used this technique for a library of project folders, most of which are on a cloud drive for access on other devices, but some of which I keep locally for security. Of course, you have to follow EagleFiler’s rules in both locations: don’t move, rename, or delete a file outside of EagleFiler.

I have a couple questions:

1. How does this work with an encrypted library? Are symlinks simply prohibited in that case, or would the pointed-to folder on the cloud drive also be encrypted?

2. I have on occasion inadvertently violated the EagleFiler rule, adding a leading zero to project folders that end in a single digit (i.e. “-1” to “-01”), so folder names would sort consistently. In this case, it seems EagleFiler added the “-01” folder, but retained the “-1” folder, which now had no corresponding files on disk. The record viewer indicates a problem for these files. My question is: To correct this, is it sufficient to simply delete the “phantom” folder in EagleFiler, removing the names from the the EagleFiler index?

Thanks.

[Michael_Tsai]

@dmag

How does this work with an encrypted library? Are symlinks simply prohibited in that case, or would the pointed-to folder on the cloud drive also be encrypted?

You can still use symlinks from an encrypted library, but if you link to a folder in an unencrypted location its contents will not be encrypted.

@dmag

I have on occasion inadvertently violated the EagleFiler rule, adding a leading zero to project folders that end in a single digit (i.e. “-1” to “-01”), so folder names would sort consistently. In this case, it seems EagleFiler added the “-01” folder, but retained the “-1” folder, which now had no corresponding files on disk. The record viewer indicates a problem for these files. My question is: To correct this, is it sufficient to simply delete the “phantom” folder in EagleFiler, removing the names from the the EagleFiler index?

What’s happening here is that EagleFiler sees the original folder as missing and then sees a new folder with a different name, which it imports. It’s best to use Finder to rename it back to the original name. Then EagleFiler will find it again, and you can delete the (now missing) new folder in EagleFiler.

Your above idea will also work but could potentially lose metadata or break links to the old folder or its contents.