From: cgf AT bbc DOT com (Chris Faylor)
Subject: Re: cygnus' notion of symbolic links
2 Dec 1997 13:47:36 -0800
Message-ID: <EKKJ9u.357.cygnus.gnu-win32@bbc.com>
References: <34834DFF DOT 7566F4CF AT synopsys DOT com>
Reply-To: cgf AT bbc DOT com
To: gnu-win32 AT cygnus DOT com

In article <34834DFF DOT 7566F4CF AT synopsys DOT com>,
B. Elizabeth Trojan <lizt AT synopsys DOT com> wrote:
>Can someone explain how symbolic links work using the Cygnus
>ln -s command?

A file is written with a special 'cookie' at the beginning followed by
a path spec.  The path spec is the location of the file to which the
link refers.

In coolview and B19 versions of cygwin, symbolic links also have the
'system' attribute set.  The file is not read at all if this attribute
is not set.  This speeds up checking for symbolic links.

As you may be able to see from this brief description, symbolic links
are entirely a cygwin construction.  You can't use them with native
windows programs.
-- 
http://www.bbc.com/	cgf AT bbc DOT com			"Strange how unreal
VMS=>UNIX Solutions	Boston Business Computing	 the real can be."
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