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Message-ID: <d2078f69441b0de234917109f45761db1240d98c.camel@mindspring.com>
Subject: Re: Cygwin install on Windows 11 problem with symlinks in
 /etc/fonts/conf.d from libfontconfig-common package
To: cygwin@cygwin.com
Date: Wed, 26 Nov 2025 13:30:13 -0500
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From: C Linus Hicks via Cygwin <cygwin@cygwin.com>
Reply-To: C Linus Hicks <linush@mindspring.com>
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On Wed, 2025-11-26 at 16:32 +0000, Jon Turney wrote:
> On 25/11/2025 04:04, C. Linus Hicks via Cygwin wrote:
> > The company gave us a new VDI with Windows 11 installed to replace 
> > the old VDI where Cygwin 64 had been installed on Windows 10.
> > Afterinstalling Cygwin on the new machine, I noticed a strange
> > problem with it that I was just now able to track down.>
> > The files created in /etc/fonts/conf.d by the libfontconfig-common 
> > package were not created as symlinks but rather as flat files having 
> > contents like so:
> > 
> > !<symlink>../../../usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/10-hinting- 
> > slight.conf
> 
> This is an original ('sys') style Cygwin symlink: a plain file with 
> contents like that, and with the system attribute set.
> 
> See https://cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/using.html#pathnames-symlinks
> 
> If this isn't functioning as a symlink for Cygwin (your report is 
> unclear on the problem you are experiencing, other than noting a 
> difference between these installations), then maybe something is 
> interfering with the system attribute getting set?

That was helpful, thanks. For some reason I can't remember, or perhaps mistakenly, I had included
/etc in the sync to cloud storage which was apparently inhibiting the system atrribute. Removing
that directory from sync restores those files to acting like symlinks.

Unfortunately, that didn't solve my original problem, but led me to a path that did.

Thanks for your help.

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