Greetings, Jeff! > Based on the documentation and practical use of the Windows-style > symlinks (winsymlinks) vs Cygwin-style symlinks, it seems to me that: > 1. Winsymlinks have the advantage of working as symlinks/shortcuts > under both Cygwin and Windows Explorer while Cygwin links are > recognized only in Cygwin
True. > 2. They both are basically text files with some MAGIC numbers and > attributes that allow them to be interpreted as symlinks NOT true. Windows native symlinks are actual FS objects. > So, is there any *disadvantage* to always using Winsymlinks and indeed > converting my old Cygwin-style links to Windows-style? You can't create native symlinks as a member of Administrators group, even if your account have the needed privilege. > (Note: I can't use Windows Native symlinks because I don't have admin > privileges on all my machines) Exactly. > Finally, where is the best place to set CYGWIN=winsymlinks? > In .bash_profile? If you can't use them, there's no reason to set this option, if you expect interoperability between Windows and Cygwin. With just winsymlinks set, Cygwin will try to create native symlink, but failing that, it will create regular Cygwin symlink. With winsymlinks:nativestrict set, Cygwin will try to create native symlink and report failure instead of creating Cygwin symlink. P.S. I'm using winsymlinks:nativestrict personally, but I know implications and well prepared to deal with them. -- With best regards, Andrey Repin Friday, December 27, 2019 21:04:24 Sorry for my terrible english... -- Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html FAQ: http://cygwin.com/faq/ Documentation: http://cygwin.com/docs.html Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple
