Re: [Mingw-users] symbolic links ( ln -s command)

[Brian D. <br...@de...>]

> "Salazar, German P21322" wrote:

> ...from my (ignorant) point of view, being a simple user of these
> systems (mingw and msys) I feel like if the command "ln" does not
> do in msys what does in a REAL POSIX system (whatever the reason),
> then it should not be made available in the first palce...it just
> lends itself for missleading us users.
> 
> So, if there is a command named "ln", I expect it to behave like
> "ln"and not like "cp"...that's all I am saying.

The whole reason that MSYS exists is to provide an environment in which
to run autoconf configure scripts and execute Makefiles from POSIX-type
software packages with the MinGW toolchain.  Many of these expect to be
able to use common POSIX commands like 'ln'.  If MSYS did not provide a
'ln' binary then it would not be able to run some of these configure
tests properly, which would defeat its whole point of existance.  By
providing a 'ln' that just copies, it at least allows these configure
tests to succeed in the majority of cases.

MSYS is in the unenviable position of trying to marry the idea of native
Windows apps with a POSIX build system, and there are bound to be
tradeoffs in accomplishing this.  If you want something whose purpose is
to provide a set of tools that maintain all POSIX functionality then use
Cygwin instead, where "ln -s" symlinks work just fine (as long as you
stick with Cygwin binaries.)

Brian