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Date:	Thu, 22 Feb 2001 13:24:18 -0500
From:	"Charles S. Wilson" <cwilson AT ece DOT gatech DOT edu>
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To:	Corinna Vinschen <cygwin AT cygwin DOT com>
Subject:	Re: [ANNOUNCEMENT]: Important change to symbolic link functionali ty
References:	<17B78BDF120BD411B70100500422FC6309E210 AT IIS000> <20010222184404 DOT S908 AT cygbert DOT vinschen DOT de>

Corinna Vinschen wrote:

> The POSIX path in the shortcut which is used by Cygwin is saved EXACTLY
> as it's given. So there is no change in behaviour as far as Cygwin is
> concerned!!! OTOH the symlinks now have a meaning for DOS tools as well.
> 
> I can't see a disadvantage here.

Sounds like a good system to me.  The only drawback I can see -- and I
don't mean this as a criticism, it's simply unavoidable -- is the
following:

If you create a symlink that points to an object and spans a mount
entry, both the "cygwin" path and the "dos" path will 'do the right
thing' and point where you think they should.

Then, change the underlying mount entry.

The "cygwin" path will point to the new location (since it is
interpreted using the new mount entry) but the "dos" path will still
point to the old (possibly non-existant, now) location because it *was*
interpreted at symlink-creation-time using the old mount table.

IMO, this slight and rare inconvenience is worth the price -- at least
now, symlinks will mostly work from Explorer.  Let's be honest, now: how
often do you really rearrange your mount table?

--Chuck

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