The Get File Attribute action returns the specified attribute for the specified file to a Variable.

Click the File Chooser button to the right of the action to select an existing file on disk. Option-click on the File Chooser button to show the currently selected file in the Finder (assuming it exists already).

The result of the action is displayed at the bottom of the action.

There are several more attributes available using the Filter action.

• Delete the the path extension.
• Expand Path to full page, replacing tilde (~) in the path.
• Resolve symlinks, or standardize the path.

If you select an Alias or SymLink file using the File Chooser it will return the target rather than the actual path.

If you want to determine if the Finder Item is an Alias or SymLink, you can use this AppleScript, which will return either “Link: Alias” OR “Link: SymLink” OR the file kind.

snippet.applescript

tell application "Finder"
  set theSel to the selection
  set theItem to item 1 of theSel
  set itemKindStr to (kind of theItem) as text
 
  if (itemKindStr ≠ "folder") then
    set itemFileType to (file type of theItem) as text
  else
    set itemFileType to "folder"
  end if
 
  if (itemKindStr = "Alias") then
    if (itemFileType = "missing value") then
      set itemKindStr to "Link: SymLink"
    else
      set itemKindStr to "Link: Alias"
    end if
  end if
 
end tell
 
return itemKindStr
-->Link: Alias
-->Link: SymLink
-->BBEdit text document

• Set File Attribute
• Filter
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• File Attribute
• Path
• See all Conditions

• Getting url of most recently added file to folder
• Keyboard Maestro Forum topics about Get File Attribute