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[quote author=Dakusan link=topic=396.msg627#msg627 date=1374746708]
<div class="MainSiteContent"><div style="font-weight:bold;">Original post for <a href="https://www.castledragmire.com/Posts/Windows_“ln”_(symbolic_linking)_support_for_Cygwin">Windows “ln” (symbolic linking) support for Cygwin</a> can be found at <a href="https://www.castledragmire.com/Posts/Windows_“ln”_(symbolic_linking)_support_for_Cygwin">https://www.castledragmire.com/Posts/Windows_“ln”_(symbolic_linking)_support_for_Cygwin</a>.
Originally posted on: 07/25/13 </div>
The “ln -s” command in Cygwin creates a fake symbolic link only supported in Cygwin. I whipped up the following script to create a true windows symbolic link that is supported in both Windows and Cygwin (it shows up as a symlink in Cygwin).<pre class=code>
TARGET=`echo $1 | perl -pe 's/\\//\\\\/g'`; #Determine the target from the first parameter (where we are linking to). Change forward slashes to back slashes
LINK=`echo $2 | perl -pe 's/\\//\\\\/g'` #Determine the link name from the second parameter (where the symlink is made). Change forward slashes to back slashes
cmd /c mklink $3 $4 $5 $6 "$LINK" "$TARGET" #Perform the windows mklink command with optional extra parameters
</pre>Note that for the link name, you have to include the full filename, not just specify a directory.
See <a href="http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc753194%28v=ws.10%29.aspx">here for information on mklink and its switches.</a> Specifically:<ul><li>/d : directory symlink (more hard)</li><li>/j : directory junction (more soft)</li></ul>This handles the problem a little more directly than my <a href="https://www.castledragmire.com/Posts/Symlinks_in_a_Windows_programming_environment">other post on the topic ("Symlinks in a Windows programming environment")</a>.

[Edit on 2016-01-12 @ 12:34am]
And once again, I have a new version of the code. This version has the following advantages:<ul><li>No longer limited to just 4 extra parameters (dynamic instead of static)</li><li>Can now just specify your directory as the link location, and the filename will be automatically filled in</li><li>Handles spaces better</li></ul>Do note, if you want to link directly to a hard drive letter, you must use "c:/" instead of "/cygdrive/c/"

#If the link is already a directory, append the filename to the end of it
if [ -d "$LINK" ]; then
 #Get the file/directory name without the rest of the path
 ELEMENT_NAME=`echo "$TARGET" | perl -pe 's/^.*?\/([^\/]+)\/?$/$1/'`

#Append the file name to the target, making sure there is only 1 separating "/"
 LINK=`echo "$LINK" | perl -pe 's/^(.*?)\/?$/$1/'`
 LINK="$LINK"/"$ELEMENT_NAME"
fi

#Replace forward slashes with back slashes
TARGET=`echo $TARGET | perl -pe 's/\\//\\\\/g'`
LINK=`echo $LINK | perl -pe 's/\\//\\\\/g'`

#Perform the windows mklink command with optional extra parameters
cmd /c mklink "$@" "$LINK" "$TARGET"</pre></div></div></div>
[/quote]

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Topic Summary

Posted by: Dakusan

« on: April 26, 2016, 03:45:08 am »

Insert Quote

Just found out that adding "winsymlinks:nativestrict" to your CYGWIN variable in bash makes all internal symlinks use actual windows NTFS symlinks. This is a MUCH better solution, as it will then support all commands that work with symlinks, including rsync.

Posted by: Dakusan

« on: November 08, 2015, 08:33:10 pm »

Insert Quote

Note: This script need to be rewritten using cygpath
[Edit on 2015-01-12 @ 1:01am]Nevermind on this. Using cygpath forces absolute paths, which is not always desirable. Hmm... maybe I should add a switch that would do that behavior.

Posted by: Dakusan

« on: July 25, 2013, 06:05:08 am »

Insert Quote

Original post for Windows “ln” (symbolic linking) support for Cygwin can be found at https://www.castledragmire.com/Posts/Windows_“ln”_(symbolic_linking)_support_for_Cygwin.
Originally posted on: 07/25/13

The “ln -s” command in Cygwin creates a fake symbolic link only supported in Cygwin. I whipped up the following script to create a true windows symbolic link that is supported in both Windows and Cygwin (it shows up as a symlink in Cygwin).


TARGET=`echo $1 | perl -pe 's/\\//\\\\/g'`; #Determine the target from the first parameter (where we are linking to). Change forward slashes to back slashes
LINK=`echo $2 | perl -pe 's/\\//\\\\/g'` #Determine the link name from the second parameter (where the symlink is made). Change forward slashes to back slashes
cmd /c mklink $3 $4 $5 $6 "$LINK" "$TARGET" #Perform the windows mklink command with optional extra parameters

Note that for the link name, you have to include the full filename, not just specify a directory.
See here for information on mklink and its switches. Specifically:

/d : directory symlink (more hard)
/j : directory junction (more soft)

This handles the problem a little more directly than my other post on the topic ("Symlinks in a Windows programming environment").

[Edit on 2016-01-12 @ 12:34am]
And once again, I have a new version of the code. This version has the following advantages:

No longer limited to just 4 extra parameters (dynamic instead of static)
Can now just specify your directory as the link location, and the filename will be automatically filled in
Handles spaces better

Do note, if you want to link directly to a hard drive letter, you must use "c:/" instead of "/cygdrive/c/"

#Get the target and link
TARGET="$1"
shift
LINK="$1"
shift

#If the link is already a directory, append the filename to the end of it
if [ -d "$LINK" ]; then
    #Get the file/directory name without the rest of the path
    ELEMENT_NAME=`echo "$TARGET" | perl -pe 's/^.*?\/([^\/]+)\/?$/$1/'`

    #Append the file name to the target, making sure there is only 1 separating "/"
    LINK=`echo "$LINK" | perl -pe 's/^(.*?)\/?$/$1/'`
    LINK="$LINK"/"$ELEMENT_NAME"
fi

#Replace forward slashes with back slashes
TARGET=`echo $TARGET | perl -pe 's/\\//\\\\/g'`
LINK=`echo $LINK | perl -pe 's/\\//\\\\/g'`

#Perform the windows mklink command with optional extra parameters
cmd /c mklink "$@" "$LINK" "$TARGET"

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