Any difference between ios file:///var/mobile/Containers and file:///private/var/mobile/Containers?

Question

Are they different or simple aliases?

I obtain the /private/var by running:

FileManager.default.contentsOfDirectory(at: folder, includingPropertiesForKeys: [], options: [])

And the second is created with a simple:

data.write(to: f, options: [.atomic]) 

where f is in the same directory as "folder"

Answer 1

That are the same directories, as one can verify by retrieving the “canonical path” for both:

let url1 = URL(fileURLWithPath: "/var/mobile/Containers/")
if let cp = (try? url1.resourceValues(forKeys: [.canonicalPathKey]))?.canonicalPath {
    print(cp)
    // "/private/var/mobile/Containers"

}
let url2 = URL(fileURLWithPath: "/private/var/mobile/Containers/")
if let cp = (try? url2.resourceValues(forKeys: [.canonicalPathKey]))?.canonicalPath {
    print(cp)
    // "/private/var/mobile/Containers"
}

In fact, /var is a symbolic link to /private/var:

var buffer = Array<Int8>(repeating: 0, count: 1024)
if readlink("/var", &buffer, buffer.count) > 0 {
    print(String(cString: &buffer))
    // "private/var"
}

Answer 2

For Swift users, using URL.standardizedFileURL eliminates the ambiguity/confusion caused by paths which contain soft links or other different elements that ultimately resolve to the same file.