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Date: Wed, 12 Mar 2008 09:48:46 +0100
From: Corinna Vinschen <corinna-cygwin AT cygwin DOT com>
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Subject: Re: Cygwin and Vista symlinks using mklink problem
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On Mar 11 22:12, Paul Carew wrote:
> Beware!!
> I have noticed that Cygwin and the new Vista command 'mklink' do not 
> co-exist very happily.
> If you create a Vista symlink using mklink and then try to  delete/remove 
> it using 'rm', the target is deleted and not the symlink!

Cygwin 1.5.25 does not recognize the new native NTFS symlinks as
symlinks.  For a Cygwin process, the native symlink is a normal file and
opened and handled like a normal file.  The fact that unlink removes the
target of the symlink instead of the symlink is an unfortunate Window'ism.

The next major version of Cygwin will recognize native NTFS symlinks as
symlinks, so that won't happen anymore.  However, Cygwin will not
utilize NTFS symlinks for its own symlinks, because the native symlink
functionality has two serious flaws:

- By default, only administrators have the right to create native
  symlinks.  Admins running with restricted permissions under UAC don't
  have this right.

- When creating a native symlink, you have to define if this symlink
  points to a file or a directory.  This makes no sense given that
  symlinks often are created before the target they point to.

These issues make native symlinks almost unusable from a POSIX
perspective. 


Corinna

-- 
Corinna Vinschen                  Please, send mails regarding Cygwin to
Cygwin Project Co-Leader          cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Red Hat

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