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X-WM-Posted-At: avacado.atomice.net; Fri, 26 Jul 02 21:37:20 +0100
Message-ID: <002301c234e4$3d2a5ed0$0100a8c0@atomice.net>
From: "Chris January" <chris AT atomice DOT net>
To: <cygwin-developers AT cygwin DOT com>
References: <00c801c234a6$d89c1b80$0200a8c0 AT lifelesswks> <004701c234cd$ada30fc0$0100a8c0 AT atomice DOT net> <20020726214049 DOT L3921 AT cygbert DOT vinschen DOT de>
Subject: Re: 'native' symlinks for 2K+
Date: Fri, 26 Jul 2002 21:37:17 +0100
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> > > 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.
This is a GPL'ed version of the ntifs.h file:
http://www.acc.umu.se/~bosse/ntifs.html

> 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" ?
It would need to go into the SYSTEM32/Drivers directory, IIRC.
>
> 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.
true.

Chris