[Tcl-bugs] [ tcl-Bugs-714539 ] [file readlink] on windows should work

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Bugs item #714539, was opened at 2003-04-03 12:04
Message generated for change (Settings changed) made by dkf
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>Category: 36. File System
Group: = 8.4.2
Status: Open
Resolution: None
Priority: 5
Submitted By: Nobody/Anonymous (nobody)
>Assigned to: Vince Darley (vincentdarley)
Summary: [file readlink] on windows should work

Initial Comment:
file readlink is documented as:

"Returns the value of the symbolic link given by name 

(i.e. the name of the file it points to). If name isn't a 

symbolic link or its value cannot be read, then an error 

is returned. On systems that don't support symbolic 

links this option is undefined."



It is no question that symbolic links are not *fully* 

supported on Windows, but .lnk files go part of the way 

(though even cmd.exe doesn't honor them). However, 

Cygwin uses .lnk files to model symbolic links quite 

successfully.



I propose that instead of raising an error when called 

with a .lnk file, [file readlink] should return the path 

pointed to in the .lnk file, using IShellLink routines.



Resolution of pathnames in which parts are really .lnk 

files may be more difficult.



Ric...@si...

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Comment By: Pat Thoyts (patthoyts)
Date: 2003-04-06 21:05

Message:
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Note that the NTFS file system does support links to both

files and directories. How this be detected I don't know 

but as an example, my   %HOME%\src directory has a link to

my tcl installation directory and it looks like this using

the dir command:

12/03/2003  15:51       <JUNCTION>     tcl

01/04/2003  01:04       <DIR>          winsend



where 'tcl' is a link to 'c:\opt\tcl\src'



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