This is the mail archive of the cygwin@sources.redhat.com mailing list for the Cygwin project.


Index Nav: [Date Index] [Subject Index] [Author Index] [Thread Index]
Message Nav: [Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next]

Re: [ANNOUNCEMENT]: Important change to symbolic link functionali ty


Corinna Vinschen wrote:

> The POSIX path in the shortcut which is used by Cygwin is saved EXACTLY
> as it's given. So there is no change in behaviour as far as Cygwin is
> concerned!!! OTOH the symlinks now have a meaning for DOS tools as well.
> 
> I can't see a disadvantage here.

Sounds like a good system to me.  The only drawback I can see -- and I
don't mean this as a criticism, it's simply unavoidable -- is the
following:

If you create a symlink that points to an object and spans a mount
entry, both the "cygwin" path and the "dos" path will 'do the right
thing' and point where you think they should.

Then, change the underlying mount entry.

The "cygwin" path will point to the new location (since it is
interpreted using the new mount entry) but the "dos" path will still
point to the old (possibly non-existant, now) location because it *was*
interpreted at symlink-creation-time using the old mount table.

IMO, this slight and rare inconvenience is worth the price -- at least
now, symlinks will mostly work from Explorer.  Let's be honest, now: how
often do you really rearrange your mount table?

--Chuck

--
Want to unsubscribe from this list?
Check out: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple


Index Nav: [Date Index] [Subject Index] [Author Index] [Thread Index]
Message Nav: [Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next]