fileReferenceURL vs. NSURLFileResourceIdentifierKey
Thomas Tempelmann (Mastodon, tweet):
There is a fine but important difference between the two - they behave differently if the item is a hard linked file.
If, especially on a APFS formatted volume, you have multiple hard links for the same file content, then
NSURLFileResourceIdentifierKeywill return the same value (classic “inode”) for all these hard links, whereasfileReferenceURLreturns unique “link IDs” that keep the reference for each hard link entry’s path.
Don’t use that info to construct your own URL string. First, the info in that answer is incomplete. Second, that string format could change.
[…]
fileReference URLs were added because AppKit used FSRefs and they wanted a URL equivelent. Bookmarks are always more reliable but not as fast.
BTW, fileReference URLs on non-Mac devices are much less useful because there’s no coreservicesd.
Previously:
