Re: [boost] symbolic links while building boost

Subject: Re: [boost] symbolic links while building boost
From: Vladimir Prus (vladimir_at_[hidden])
Date: 2009-12-04 02:42:46

Zachary Turner wrote:

> I use Windows primarily, and typically after building boost, there are two
> copies of each library.  One with the version extension such as -1_41, and
> the other without.  My understanding is that the one without the version
> number is supposed to be a symlink to the one with the version number on
> platforms such as linux, but that on Windows it is just a copy of the file
> due to poor support for symlinks in windows.
> 
> My question is whether there has been any talk of changing this.  Windows
> has supported first class symlinks since Vista, so it would seem possible to
> have Vista and beyond actually use this functionality and create real
> symlinks.

Zachary,

there was no talk about this. Somebody previously suggested using hard links on NTFS,
if available, but that did not lead anywhere. 

I think the primary concern is that while the filesystem might support hard or soft links
now, existing programs do not, and presumably, if somebody's backup -- or another other -- 
program chokes on Boost, user will blame us. However, I don't use Windows enough to be
able to decide. I'm happy to implement whatever the concensus here might be.

- Volodya