Support `public.symlink` for application results and launching

[tankard]

Right now things like homebrew make symbolic links in the /Applications (or ~/Applications) folder to somewhere like /usr/local/Cellar/<package>/<version>/<Appname>.app.

 

Now I have to go in manually to remove the symlink (public.symlink) and replace it with a finder alias (com.apple.alias-file). Other people in the bug forum just add the Cellar path to Alfred every time the version changes (way less than ideal).

 

Alfred ignores symlinks in the Applications folders even after adding them to the "User-defined" file types in Default Results | Advanced. It allows com.apple.alias-file types however.

 

[Andrew]

Right now things like homebrew make symbolic links in the /Applications (or ~/Applications) folder to somewhere like /usr/local/Cellar/<package>/<version>/<Appname>.app.

 

Now I have to go in manually to remove the symlink (public.symlink) and replace it with a finder alias (com.apple.alias-file). Other people in the bug forum just add the Cellar path to Alfred every time the version changes (way less than ideal).

 

Alfred ignores symlinks in the Applications folders even after adding them to the "User-defined" file types in Default Results | Advanced. It allows com.apple.alias-file types however.

 

If you just add /usr/local/Cellar/ to Alfred's search path, then this is recursive.

 

Alfred doesn't support public.symlink as OS X's metadata server has very limited support for this, making searches very inefficient. If Alfred ever takes on the job of indexing himself, then I'll take into account symlinks.

[tankard]

Ah! cool thanks

[adamlogan]

+1 for this feature request. I also tried adding the public.symlink as a user-defined filetype and found it unsatisfactory.

I use homebrew like the op, but this is also a problem where some apps have sub-apps embeded inside an app package. In my immediate case scenario for example, I'm testing fs-protection for Mac. My interest is mostly in the DeepGuard application which is a file-based firewall rather than the usual network firewall. The source app is at directory: /Applications/fs protection/F-Secure Mac Protection.app/Contents/Resources/F-Secure XFENCE Configuration.app sure would be nice to be able to launch it from Alfred like I do any other native macos app.

I can see the symlink if I use the "open" command, but that is not how I usually launch apps, I usually just open alfred launch bar and type in the first few characters of the app name.

[deanishe]

13 minutes ago, adamlogan said:

I also tried adding the public.symlink as a user-defined filetype and found it unsatisfactory.

 

Yeah.  Symlinks aren't resolved by the macOS system metadata index. (Aliases are, however, AFAIK.)

 

Unfortunately, there's nothing Alfred can realistically do about that short of implementing its own indexing (which is extremely unlikely to happen, imo, given the incredible effort that would require).

 

I'm afraid you have to work around it by adding Keywords to a workflow to launch apps that are symlinked or inside other application bundles.

[adamlogan]

1 hour ago, deanishe said:

(Aliases are, however, AFAIK.)

I tried creating alias via Finder as well, they still don't appear as I expect them to in Alfred when the alias is placed in /Applications. I tried forcing spotlight reindexing. No dice thus far.

Edited August 15, 2021 by adamlogan
Edited out mistake.

[deanishe]

Oh, sorry. I think you'll have to use a workflow and Keywords to launch such apps, then. Apps inside other application bundles aren't even indexed (you can't launch Alfred Preferences from Spotlight, for example).