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Re: native symlink
- From: Jeffrey Altman <jaltman at openafs dot org>
- To: cygwin-developers at cygwin dot com
- Date: Wed, 03 Apr 2013 12:51:45 -0400
- Subject: Re: native symlink
- References: <80C3E267-F369-4FF3-A3FD-69A997FFC33B at mac dot com> <5153759A dot 7080307 at cygwin dot com> <79518574-72AB-451F-ACE3-3277981987D5 at mac dot com> <20130401195216 dot GA7174 at ednor dot casa dot cgf dot cx> <9A868E84-96C2-486C-98DF-3FF5079ACD50 at mac dot com> <20130402000633 dot GA3977 at ednor dot casa dot cgf dot cx> <9362C76C-DB6B-4DA8-B61E-7980CFDF7A8A at mac dot com> <20130403014056 dot GA3383 at ednor dot casa dot cgf dot cx> <2EC5409B-C507-4B41-862C-D42D69CE3741 at mac dot com> <515BB10C dot 9080101 at openafs dot org> <20130403152907 dot GD2468 at calimero dot vinschen dot de> <515C5995 dot 7060201 at rfk dot com>
- Reply-to: jaltman at openafs dot org
On 4/3/2013 12:32 PM, Larry Hall wrote:
> On 4/3/2013 11:29 AM, Corinna Vinschen wrote:
>> (*) In your blog you were musing why Cygwin supports lnk files but
>> not native symlinks. Here's the answer: lnk files support using
>> POSIX paths.
>
> And while supporting lnk files does have some benefits for
> interoperability, I think the history of this option is significant.
> At a point in the past, Cygwin symlinks were lnk files by default.
> However, they fell out of favor when support for UTF filenames was added
> to Cygwin. Given this background, one could certainly posit that lnk file
> support is not in its ascendency and could even be viewed as exactly the
> opposite. To me, that makes it a weak basis for building an argument to
> add support of new but similar functionality.
>
> Despite the fact that I'm replying directly to Corinna's statement, I'm
> addressing the above comment to Jeffrey. Somehow I get the feeling that
> Corinna is aware of the history of this option. ;-)
Larry, Thanks for the additional history,
I wasn't making the argument in favor of native symlinks based upon the
existence of LNK files. In my blog post I was simply documenting
various approaches that had been used. LNK files clearly pre-date NTFS
and Reparse Points in general let alone the Microsoft Symlink Reparse
Point. It was very unclear from the Cygwin sources what the motivations
were.
Jeffrey Altman