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:[email protected]] > 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: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] > > 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@msnehalem2 /cygdrive/c/Users/balay > > $ mklink > > bash: mklink: command not found > > > > balay@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
