Get full file path (without alias) on Lion in Java

Question

I have a file with the absolute path: /Users/ivan/test.txt

String absolutePath = file.getAbsolutePath();

But I need the full path: /Volumes/Macintosh HD/Users/ivan/test.txt ("/" is an alias of "Macintosh HD").

I have already tried using getCanonicalPath and FileSystemView but I always get the same path.

Answer 1

Have a look at the Aliases.h file. Specifically, you want to look at the functions FSIsAliasFile() and FSResolveAlias family of functions, possibly FSResolveAlias() or FSResolveAliasFile() .

I haven't tried this myself, but it looks like something that should give you what you're after.

Answer 2

I think there is no way to get that path with pure Java. Yiou'll have to write a native shared-object.

Maye there are some imporvements with Java-7 and the FileSystem

Answer 3

Finally I did it using Runtime (I only needed the real name folder of the "/" alias in the volume folder:

...
// ls -al command lists the files and the alias
proc = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("ls -al /Volumes");

BufferedReader stdInput = new BufferedReader(new 
InputStreamReader(proc.getInputStream()));

String line;
// match the name between the time and the arrow
Pattern myPatter = Pattern.compile("[0-9]+:[0-9]+ (.*?) -> " + "/");
Matcher matcher;
while ((line = stdInput.readLine()) != null) {
        if (line.indexOf(" -> ") != -1){
            // get the real volume name                    
            matcher = myPatter.matcher(line);
            if (matcher.find())
                return matcher.group(1);                     
        }                    
}
...