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Date: Fri, 26 Jul 2002 21:40:49 +0200
From: Corinna Vinschen <vinschen AT redhat DOT com>
To: cygwin-developers AT cygwin DOT com
Subject: Re: 'native' symlinks for 2K+
Message-ID: <20020726214049.L3921@cygbert.vinschen.de>
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On Fri, Jul 26, 2002 at 06:55:50PM +0100, Chris January wrote:
> > Is there any interest in an implementation of symlinks via reparse
> > points for win2k and above?
> Reparse points using the filter supplied with win 2k/xp aren't that great
> for doing posix-like symlinks. However, in my bookmarks I have some free
> code for writing file system filters for Windows NT/2k/XP. Perhaps we could
> write our own filter? This would mean Cygwin symlinks worked the same with
> native programs as they do with Cygwin programs. (I will, of course, put my
> keyboard where my mouth is if there is interest in this).

That's interesting.  Don't one need access to the IFS Kit which
costs $$$?  If you have access to the IFS kit, there's the problem
of the licensing.  Since it's not publically available, I guess that
MS has some restrictive license which e. g. disallowes publishing
of header file details given in the IFS kit.  IOW, if you write a
filter using the IFS kit either nobody else can compile it or you'd
have to release compatible header files and library stubs which
would be against the license.

Hmm, I have a deja-vu here... as if I already asked that question
about IFS moons ago...

Another aspect is, would we have to install something (probably a DLL)
into the Windows system folder to get an own filter or is it enough
if the Cygwin DLL itself tells the system "hey, I'm responsible for
reparse points of type foo" ?

Anyway, we should really think twice about that.  We already have two
methods of creating symlinks, one of them is accessible by native
Windows (well, sort of) and both have the advantage to work on 9x and NT.

Corinna

-- 
Corinna Vinschen                  Please, send mails regarding Cygwin to
Cygwin Developer                                mailto:cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Red Hat, Inc.