Re: [boost] [filesystem] create_symlink() support for Windows Vista?

From: Greer, Joe (jgreer_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-11-03 08:48:31

> I've mentioned this many times in the past and have been "assured"
> that they really aren't "symlinks".
> Since I've used *nix about a total of 3 hours in my 4 decade career,
> I had to take people at their word.
> 

No, they just act like it in many respects.  They are really called
reparse points and it is how NTFS supports both symbolic links and
mounted volumes.  Basically, if the OS sees a reparse point flag set on
a directory, it looks up a substitute path in an internal table,
substitutes that path and continues parsing the path.  This is quite
different from symbolic links in *nix, however, they have a similar
effect.  They also have hard links (much like *nix) which are limited to
links within a volume.  The Windows resource kit has had tools for this
stuff since Windows 2000.

joe