How to move the bookmarks in Firefox 3

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Osiris

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Firefox 3 changed the way bookmarks are stored on the computer. Before they were simply saved in a bookmarks.html file in the user's profile folder and it was easy to add the browser.bookmarks.file parameter in about:config to change the location manually. The new Firefox introduces a database driven design and bookmarks are now stored in the places.sqlite file in the profile folder.
The problem that arises is that the parameter that worked in Firefox 2 to change the location of the bookmarks does not work in Firefox 3 anymore. Currently there is only one solution to move the bookmarks in Firefox 3 to another folder. Before I explain how this is done I would like to point out why someone would want to move the bookmarks to another folder.
One reason is synchronization. Placing them on a network drive for instance ensures that another computer can also access those bookmarks. Another reason might be security, bookmarks can obviously be stored on an encrypted hard disk so that no one could access them unless the encrypted hard disk is mounted. It would also make sense to place them in a location so that different profiles (on the same computer) can access the same bookmarks.
The only viable way of moving the bookmarks in Firefox 3 is by using symbolic links. Symbolic links are supported under Linux and Windows NTFS drives. I'm not sure about Macintosh though. A symbolic link basically is a forwarded link that tells the operating system to look at another place for the file.
The command for Linux is ln -s target_filename symlink_filename while Windows users could use the Junction tool by Sysinternals to achieve the same results.

How to move the bookmarks in Firefox 3
 
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