FSPathMakeRef is a function which creates an FSRef from a POSIX path. This is probably the simplest way to get an FSRef from an NSString containing a path. Example:

FSRef outRef; OSStatus err = FSPathMakeRef((const UInt8 *)[path fileSystemRepresentation], &outRef, NULL); if(err != noErr) …signal the error…

Note that since FSRefs can only point to existing files, this function will not work if the file indicated by the path does not exist.

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In most cases it is better to call FSPathMakeRefWithOptions and pass kFSPathMakeRefDefaultOptions, since it will succeed for paths such as “/Volumes” unlike FSPathMakeRef.