VirtualBox Mac OS X does not support aliases?

[Beast Of Bodmin]

Mac OS X 10.6.4.
VBox 3.2.8 r64453

Because my system disk was quite full, I wanted to alias my ~Library/VirtualBox folder to an external HDD to free up 15GB.

I moved all the data to /Volumes/BigAndHard/VirtualBox and made an alias. I checked the alias in the finder by browsing to ~Library/VirtualBox in the Finder.

The result? The error message below. And VBox would no longer start.

I resorted to a plain old Unix soft link, which works fine. Is this worthy of a bug report or is it already covered?

Runtime error opening '/Users/bob/Library/VirtualBox/Machines/Winnit 7/Winnit 7.xml' for reading: -103 (Path not found.).
/Users/vbox/tinderbox/3.2-mac-rel/src/VBox/Main/MachineImpl.cpp[667] (nsresult Machine::registeredInit()).
Result Code:
NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005)
Component:
VirtualBox
Interface:
IVirtualBox {3f36e024-7fed-4f20-a02c-9158a82b44e6}

Details:
Result Code:
NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005)
Component:
VirtualBox
Interface:
IVirtualBox {3f36e024-7fed-4f20-a02c-9158a82b44e6}

[Sasquatch]

That would seem like a bug, but can you tell us what this 'alias' is exactly, especially compared to a symbolic link?

[ChipMcK]

a Wiki article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alias_(Mac_OS)

My experiences,
1) As long as under OS X host, alias links work as OS X intended
2) Guests do not know how to use/process - in a Shared Folder for a Windows vm, Windows has no idea what the alias entry/record is

best!

[Sasquatch]

Ok, from what I understand is that this 'alias' is more like a shortcut in Windows terms rather than a pointer to another location like symbolic links are. That would explain why VB fails. Somehow it treats it like a file or folder, instead of following it to the location it points to. You can open a ticket in the Bugtracker (separate account needed) and see what the devs have to say about it. For future references, post a link to the bug report here so others who stumble upon this thread know it's reported.