[petsc-dev] damn symlinks on windows

[Chetan Jhurani]

Sorry.  As always there has to be a stupid hurdle.  mklink cannot
be used unless one has admin privileges.

http://superuser.com/questions/124679/how-do-i-create-a-link-in-windows-7-home-premium-as-a-regular-user

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa363866(v=vs.85).aspx

Being a non-admin developer on Windows these days is like running
a browser with pop-ups enabled.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Chetan Jhurani [mailto:chetan.jhurani at gmail.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, October 09, 2013 12:56 PM
> To: 'petsc-dev'
> Subject: RE: [petsc-dev] damn symlinks on windows
> 
> The whole shortcut business on windows/cygwin is a mess.
> And you're right about mklink being a cmd.exe built-in.
> I had not run it as an exe from bash.  However, in case
> you decide to change things so that true symlinks are
> created, mklink can still be called from bash.
> 
> $ cmd /c mklink symlinkBook1.xlsx Book1.xlsx
> symbolic link created for symlinkBook1.xlsx <<===>> Book1.xlsx
> 
> $ wc symlinkBook1.xlsx Book1.xlsx
>    26   136  8668 symlinkBook1.xlsx
>    26   136  8668 Book1.xlsx
>    52   272 17336 total
> 
> cygwin also understands it automatically, since it is a link at
> NTFS level, as do other programs (say while mailing the
> configure.log).
> 
> mklink requires Vista+, as you pointed out, and NTFS.  Vista and 7
> don't install on FAT32 as the boot partition.  Windows versions
> cannot even create FAT32 partitions of size > 32GB.  (Though
> third-party utilities can do it and Windows understands them.)
> 
> The point is that someone who uses FAT partitions on today's
> disks has to be too attached to FAT (except for USB flash drives
> where NTFS is not ideal).
> 
> To ensure that mklink is used only on Vista or higher and only
> for NTFS, you can check "cmd /c help mklink" output and fsutil.exe
> to query file-system type.  fsutil is available since XP.
> 
> Chetan
> 
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: petsc-dev-bounces at mcs.anl.gov [mailto:petsc-dev-bounces at mcs.anl.gov] On Behalf Of Satish Balay
> > Sent: Wednesday, October 09, 2013 9:12 AM
> > To: Chetan Jhurani
> > Cc: 'petsc-dev'
> > Subject: Re: [petsc-dev] damn symlinks on windows
> >
> > On Tue, 8 Oct 2013, Chetan Jhurani wrote:
> >
> > > mklink on NTFS does it the right way - no .lnk business
> > > or cygwin specific file format.
> > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS_symbolic_link
> >
> > Hm..
> >
> > >>>>
> > Please note: For Windows 2000/XP, you would use an NTFS junction point.
> >
> > The mklink command is used to create a symbolic link. It is natively available in the Command Prompt
> > in Windows Vista/2008+ (not in PowerShell or as an executable).
> > <<<<<<
> >
> > Looks like its not really portable across all versions. And I wonder
> > if anyone is still using FAT32 for local drives.
> >
> > >>>>>>>>>
> >
> > C:\Users\balay>mklink
> > Creates a symbolic link.
> >
> > MKLINK [[/D] | [/H] | [/J]] Link Target
> >
> >         /D      Creates a directory symbolic link.  Default is a file
> >                 symbolic link.
> >         /H      Creates a hard link instead of a symbolic link.
> >         /J      Creates a Directory Junction.
> >         Link    specifies the new symbolic link name.
> >         Target  specifies the path (relative or absolute) that the new link
> >                 refers to.
> >
> > C:\Users\balay>where mklink
> > INFO: Could not find files for the given pattern(s).
> >
> > C:\Users\balay>bash
> >
> > balay at msnehalem2 /cygdrive/c/Users/balay
> > $ mklink
> > bash: mklink: command not found
> >
> > balay at msnehalem2 /cygdrive/c/Users/balay
> > $
> > <<<<<<<<<<<
> >
> > Hm - Looks like this is this a built in feature for 'cmd' - and not useable from bash.
> > [Searching c: drive doesn't show anything]
> >
> > Satish