Re: [boost] [filesystem] proposal: treat reparse files as regular files

Subject: Re: [boost] [filesystem] proposal: treat reparse files as regular files
From: Niall Douglas (s_sourceforge_at_[hidden])
Date: 2015-07-28 06:36:18

On 28 Jul 2015 at 9:33, Paul Harris wrote:

> I think we are not on the same page. Let me try and refocus the
> discussion...
> 
> With symlinks, there is more than one access point to the same file
> content. (ie multiple file names to the identical content).
> 
> That makes symlinks fundamentally different to regular files. And it's why
> they are treated differently.  Eg don't back up content twice.
> 
> Is that statement correct?

No.

Symlinks are small text files consisting of the path to indirect to. 
You can open them and modify them whether on POSIX or Windows.

For most OS filesystem APIs, the OS spots symlink files and magically 
does the indirection for you.

> Reparse point files (that are not junctions or symlinks) do not have an
> alternate access point through the file system.
> 
> You cannot access the underlying data via another file name.   Eg dedup
> files.
> 
> Is that also correct?

Reparse points are just like POSIX symlink files - they are small 
files containing the path of where to indirect to.

They are not special in any way, except by triggering exceptional 
behaviour in most OS APIs.

Niall

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