Mac OS X: Mounting shared folders using an afp:// URL or the mount_afp command

You can mount a shared volume on an AFP server with a URL in the form of afp://myserver.mydomain.com/Sharepoint/Folder, or in Terminal you can use the mount_afp command.

In Mail.app or Safari, when you click on a URL in the form afp://myserver.mydomain.com/Sharepoint/Folder, the Finder will mount the volume named Sharepoint on the AFP server myserver.mydomain.com, and open a window showing the contents of the directory named Folder. If you drag the text of the URL to your desktop, it will create an AFP link which you can double-click to open that folder.

The mount_afp command can be used in a Terminal window or a shell script to mount a shared folder on an AFP server. For more information, type the following command in in a Terminal window:

man mount_afp

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Mac OS X v10.6 through 10.6.6 information

The path at which the shared folder is mounted is different in Mac OS X v10.6 through 10.6.6 compared to other versions of Mac OS X.

A URL that points to a file on the server (for example afp://myserver.mydomain.com/Sharepoint/Folder/File.txt) will not work. This issue is resolved in Mac OS X v10.6.7 and later.

In Mac OS X v10.6 through 10.6.6, if the target of the URL or mount_afp command is a folder within the sharepoint, the folder will be mounted. In Mac OS X v10.0 through 10.5, and Mac OS X v10.6.7 or later (including OS X Lion), the sharepoint is mounted.

Example: afp://myserver.mydomain.com/Sharepoint/Folder

When you click on this link in Mac OS X 10.0 through10.5 and 10.6.7 and later, the Finder will mount the volume Sharepoint. The local path to the shared folder will be /Volumes/Sharepoint/Folder/.

When you click on this link in Mac OS X 10.6 through 10.6.6, the Finder will mount the subdirectory Folder. The local path to the shared folder will be /Volumes/Folder/.

Example:

mount_afp afp://myserver.mydomain.com/Sharepoint/Folder /Volumes/mntpnt

In Mac OS X v10.5 and 10.6.7 or later, this command will mount the volume Sharepoint at /Volumes/mntpnt. The local path to the shared folder will be /Volumes/mntpnt/Folder/.

In Mac OS X v10.6 through 10.6.6, this command will mount the subdirectory Folder at /Volumes/mntpnt. The local path to the shared folder will be /Volumes/mntpnt/.