On Nov 11 07:40, Fergus wrote: > Q1. Is it still the case that this problem is "not well understood" > as in this reference? > http://x.cygwin.com/docs/faq/cygwin-x-faq.html#q-cant-read-lock-file > Hardlinks don't work on FAT filesystems since FAT doesn't support them. Up to Cygwin 1.7.0-60, hardlinks on FAT were faked by copying the file. This has obvious downsides (unsecure, potential denial-of-service problems, portability), so we discussed and decided to remove this fake and to return an error instead when trying to create a hardlink on a FAT FS: http://cygwin.com/ml/cygwin/2009-09/msg00208.html
> (My experiments with possible cause/ cure are confounded because on > Machine 1 I have NTFS filesystems but lack administrator rights and > on Machine 2 where I am Administrator, all filesystems are FAT32.) Which is bad since FAT32 has no security at all. Any process of any user on the machine can overwrite any file, even in the Windows folder. NTFS is much more secure and has a couple of features you never get with FAT32, and hardlinks are only one minor advantage. You should really update the filesystem to NTFS using the on-board convert.exe tool. As for X, it should have a fallback method if the /tmp filesystem doesn't support hardlinks. Corinna -- Corinna Vinschen Please, send mails regarding Cygwin to Cygwin Project Co-Leader cygwin AT cygwin DOT com Red Hat -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html Documentation: http://x.cygwin.com/docs/ FAQ: http://x.cygwin.com/docs/faq/
