X-Recipient: archive-cygwin AT delorie DOT com DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=sourceware.org; h=list-id :list-unsubscribe:list-subscribe:list-archive:list-post :list-help:sender:from:to:cc:subject:date:message-id :mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding; q=dns; s= default; b=PXNFPhTZcCYOjD/1Aurrw77n547Ry2RUn8boNr4AZzAzf7ctWlkNi CZVxWG7UbJtrESHjJx0AaAfryfyyXIg407xzu2JmifRbHEhl56S2rwrz+pSS+pQ/ eP2J+eCLaikknuT745FwpE0fl8Wbsz8dXSMZWi+NyF0hPhnGG11d9U= DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha1; c=relaxed; d=sourceware.org; h=list-id :list-unsubscribe:list-subscribe:list-archive:list-post :list-help:sender:from:to:cc:subject:date:message-id :mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding; s=default; bh=cEcu9UUM7VbR9XYFUmKsUA1nHgc=; b=vvx/Q4EX13xdbUQVaxlhKH8cNahY 4Mvn1Kb91KUVW3lLSg18WaMN+soXXDKdmiDVeLfUhLwEnjMFUgqmNH5w3SUMV/WN Ja7BEwFdZBU63WVbGQ+rUZ95ujGycIHvZk7x4UxH12P/DsA3S3cNca3jQ3ysZoyf SI5rLT4Z4J9icZQ= Mailing-List: contact cygwin-help AT cygwin DOT com; run by ezmlm List-Id: List-Subscribe: List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: , Sender: cygwin-owner AT cygwin DOT com Mail-Followup-To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com Delivered-To: mailing list cygwin AT cygwin DOT com Authentication-Results: sourceware.org; auth=none X-Spam-SWARE-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,HTML_MESSAGE,RCVD_IN_DNSWL_NONE,SPF_HELO_PASS,SPF_PASS autolearn=ham version=3.3.2 spammy=Hx-spam-relays-external:sk:NAM02-S, CYGWIN, HX-HELO:sk:NAM02-S, H*RU:sk:NAM02-S X-HELO: NAM02-SN1-obe.outbound.protection.outlook.com DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=purdue0.onmicrosoft.com; s=selector1-purdue-edu; h=From:Date:Subject:Message-ID:Content-Type:MIME-Version:X-MS-Exchange-SenderADCheck; bh=eH2zBXUHTaQSKgznTg5hqR4G4lvKvxVBYAskw2v6Af0=; b=fMoTuSrJSI7NiJHUssxjoYavcTG22m28itw/2qFwCPMijaxHBRsTyHYSWkfz0Pp9or6HgRVny4g0IFacBLN7huwu1Nn/8PVDsvrmQfR4PC1N290p0OSKA5uEHI5FSH7x4gO3ZYY5RQVhP6SKv2LnpiAxfGDW8FFOeUJ0NLC1rkg= From: Paul Townsend To: "cygwin AT cygwin DOT com" CC: Paul Townsend Subject: Semantic difference with/without CYGWIN=winsymlinks:nativestrict Date: Thu, 6 Sep 2018 08:46:24 +0000 Message-ID: authentication-results: spf=none (sender IP is ) smtp.mailfrom=aab AT purdue DOT edu; received-spf: None (protection.outlook.com: purdue.edu does not designate permitted sender hosts) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by delorie.com id w868r4Ki028707 Attempts to make symlinks are handled differently depending on (1) whether or not the target file pre-exists and (2) whether or not CYGWIN=winsymlinks:nativestrict is exported. Actually, 'ln' seems to require the pre-existence as if it were a hard link attempt when CYGWIN is defined. FWIW - 'ln' on Ubuntu 18.04 on WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) allows the target to be nonexistent. The following is a very simplistic example: $ unset CYGWIN $ rm a b $ ln -s a b $ ls -l a b ls: cannot access 'a': No such file or directory lrwxrwxrwx 1 aab None 1 Sep 6 03:45 b -> a <=<=< not a "real" Windows type symlink $ export CYGWIN=winsymlinks:nativestrict $ rm a b $ ln -s a b ln: failed to create symbolic link 'b': No such file or directory $ rm a b rm: cannot remove 'a': No such file or directory rm: cannot remove 'b': No such file or directory $ touch a $ ln -s a b $ ls -l a b -rw-r--r-- 1 aab None 0 Sep 6 03:55 a lrwxrwxrwx 1 aab None 1 Sep 6 03:55 b -> a $ rm a b Found above when I downloaded the source for 'bash-4.4' and 'cygport'/'tar' attempted to make the symlink bash-4.4/ChangeLog -> [bash-4.4/]CWRU/changelog which did not yet exist. The error message is a bit confusing but it implies that the destination must pre-exist in order for the symlink to be made. FWIW - With CYGWIN exported as shown above, 'ln' does create real symlinks as verfied by Windows 10 File Explorer. -- Thanks -- Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html FAQ: http://cygwin.com/faq/ Documentation: http://cygwin.com/docs.html Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple