On 7/24/22, Barry Scott <ba...@barrys-emacs.org> wrote:
>
>> On 21 Jul 2022, at 16:42, Christopher Barker <python...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> However, I’m no Windows expert, but I *think* the modern Windows file
>> system(s?) support something like symlinks. It’s an under-the-hood
>> feature, but maybe it’s possible to add a symlink for bin.
>
> It has symlinks but only available if you are administrator.

Creating symlinks requires the filesystem to support NT reparse
points. That's guaranteed for the system volume, which must be NTFS,
but it's unreliable when development is spread across various
filesystems. This is the main obstacle to relying on a "Scripts" ->
"bin" link.

It's not technically correct to state that creating symlinks requires
administrator access. It requires SeCreateSymbolicLinkPrivilege, or no
privilege at all if developer mode is enabled for the system in
Windows 10+. By default this privilege is granted to just the
administrators group. However, an administrator can grant it to any
user or group. I prefer to grant it to the "Authenticated Users"
group.

If creating a directory symlink isn't allowed, and the filesystem
supports reparse points, then a junction mount point can be created
instead. In Unix terms, this is like using a bind mount instead of a
symlink. In Windows, creating a mount point doesn't require any
privilege or special access. (Registering it with the mount-point
manager requires administrator access, but that's only done for volume
mount points, as created by SetVolumeMountPointW.)
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