Moving Applications
 

Hi,

When I first got my PowerBook G4 I thought it would be a good idea to partition my hard drive into 3: OS, Apps and Data. However, I have been running out of space and need to do some consolidating and want to move some apps onto the the same partition that the OS is on (running Leopard). These apps include Adobe Photoshop CS3 etc. Apple apps are already on the OS partition.

My only problem is that after moving the application, in this case, PS CS3, I get the following message consistently when opening:

Application Has Moved
This application has been moved from the locaton in which it was originally installed. Some settings need to be repaired

Cancel Repair Now

I click Repair Now and Photoshop opens and works just fine, but when I close it and re-open it at a later time, the same thing happens.

Is there something I need to change so that I don't have this ongoing drama?

Thanks,

John

What made you think that?:p
I suspect that the quickest way to sort this out is just to re-install Creative Suite. CS3 installs all sorts of stuff in various parts of the computer, and seemingly does care where it is put.
You could Repar disk permissions and try your luck at trashing some of the preference files for Photoshop/CS3, either in /Library/Application Support/Adobe; or ~//Library/Application Support/Adobe; or ~/Library/Preferences.
However, you may well break something else and need to reinstall anyway.

If you do want to put stuff on other disks, the best way would be to make a symbolic link to another drive in the place of the Applications folder. That way, the system will treat the other drive as the Applications folder.

Yes, good thought benwiggy.

in Terminal do:
ln -s /Volumes/YourPartition/Applications /

Of course, consolidate you app folder to the partition first.

this is how I managed to let all users on my machine at home use the same iTunes library and iPhoto library. In short, when my fiance adds music to iTunes on her user, it is also, added to my library. Same playlists and everything. Same with iPhoto.

Being the green horn that I am, what do you mean that I should:

OK, a symbolic link is essentially a hardcore unix version of an alias.
The idea is to replace your current /Applications folder with a sym link that points to an alternative Applications folder on another partition or drive.
First, copy everything out of /Applications, as you must then delete this folder before recreating it as a symbolic link.
In the Terminal, navigate to the top of your system disk, by typing:
To make the link, type:
If you are not sure of the pathname to the folder, you can just type in "ln -s ", (note the space) and then drag the Applications folder from your other partition onto the Terminal window, and it will fill in the correct filepath for you.
Then press return.
After this, the System Applications folder points to your other partition, so that as far as the OS is concerned, /Applications is the same as /Volumes/YourPartition/Applications

benwiggy & raymondlewisjones -

Any particular reason why just a plain vanilla alias (name fixed to just "Applications") wouldn't work??

I've done this in the past (10.4 and earlier) with my Music and Documents folder using just a standard alias (called Music and Documents (DOH !!), respectively) when I had two small drives. I don't recall any problems related to that. Was I just lucky or ???

Pete

Oh, if it works then do it that way. The sym link is something that can handle unix commands and such. An alias is treated as a file and the sym link can be treated as a directory.

Well, if it's just documents that other apps are opening, then an alias may well suffice. But if it is a location from where apps -- processes are being run, whose pathway the system is likely to call, then sym links is the way to go.

Ok, so I am trying to create this symbolic link. I moved all the data from a partition called "Data" to "OS" and then trashed the folder called Applications in "Data", rebooted and emptied the trash. Next I opened up console and typed:

ln -s /Volumes/Data/Applications/ and I get the following message:

ln: ./: File exists

How can it exist if I deleted it?

Your not entering the command properly. You want to make an symbolic link of the folder, not its contents.

ln -s /Volumes/Data/Applications /Applications

Thanks for your sage advice, but I continue to have issues. Once again I entered the command

Macintosh-2:/ username$ ln -s /Volumes/Data/Applications /Applications

In response I get this:

ln: /Applications/Applications: File exists

Where am I screwing up?

You put no space between the fist '/Applications' and the second.

Urgh..guess i am just not getting it :( Sorry

This was my entry and the result:

photoguy76, why don't you copy/paste the command from the Las_Vegas' post in the forum into your Terminal? You don't seem to be understanding the issue with your current transcription, so avoiding a transcription should solve the issue, and help avoid any extra typing.

Otherwise, if you need to type it yourself, here is the command really big so that you can see the space that you are missing:

ln -s /Volumes/Data/Applications /Applications

See the space between /Applications and /Applications?

Trevor

Thank you for the LARGE type and Yes, I do see it, but if you bothered to read an earlier post, you would see that I included the space and still got an error message. See my message at 9:12 AM today. :mad:

In fact here is the log from my console after attempting it again:

Rename your old Applications folder before replacing it with a symbolic link. IE:

cd /
sudo mv -r Applications Applications(old)
ln -s Volumes/Data/Applications Applications

Once the new Applications link is working to your expectations, you can dispose of the old Applications folder.

Note the lack of the leading slash. Since you previously entered "cd /", the leading slash is unnecessary.

Sorry to be a pain in the you-know-where: I copied and pasted. The results are:

Last login: Wed Oct 31 21:41:12 on ttys000
Macintosh-2:~ photoguy76$ cd /
Macintosh-2:/ photoguy76$ sudo mv -r Applications Applications(old)
-bash: syntax error near unexpected token `('
Macintosh-2:/ photoguy76$

At this rate I need my own bulletin board! Thx for your time

Derned! Try this then…

cd /
sudo mv -r Applications 'Applications(old)'
ln -s Volumes/Data/Applications Applications

Sorry… Apparently, bash doesn't like parenthesis. The quotes will take care of that.

L_V,

Here is the result:

Last login: Thu Nov 1 09:22:48 on ttys000
Macintosh-2:~ photoguy76$ cd /
Macintosh-2:/ photoguy76$ sudo mv -r Applications 'Applications(old)'
mv: illegal option -- r
usage: mv [-f | -i | -n] [-v] source target
mv [-f | -i | -n] [-v] source ... directory

*Banging Head*

Try the 'mv' without the -r

sudo mv Applications Application_old

Forget the '-r' it shouldn't be there.

cd /
sudo mv Applications 'Applications(old)'

Awesome. Thanks that worked. Now to see if the link does what it is supposed to do ;)

Sorry… My goof.

thx for your help. much obliged.

Anyone have a solution for the error ("quoted" above) that was originally posted?